The Art of Parenting

We have been witnessing a lot of change in the world we live in, the pace of which has increased quite a lot in the recent years. We have read in our history books about the great revolutions of Russia, France & more importantly our own struggle for freedom. All of them being single best transformation for the whole country. After independence India saw Green Revolution as well as White Revolution which significantly impacted our growth. Next was the much rated LPG abbreviated for Liberalization Privatization & Globalization. All these were a story of yester years. For my generation the biggest transformation was the evolution of cellphones followed by internet & social networking, witnessing their growth till date from a very nascent stage. The biggest taker of all these in Indian context is the middle class resulting in classifying the section into two broad categories the upper middle class & the lower middle class. The upper middle class are the one who availed themselves all the advantages of the technological advancement the country has made & thus form a large percentage of Indian population. The younger generation lives a lavish lifestyle than their parent generation in terms of food habits, dressing, social order etc. This has given way to a new cultural evolution which might not be as perceptible as the no. of cars on Indian roads. But seriously one biggest change due to this new cultural evolution is the change in the upbringing of a child in an upper middle class family in India.

                                                     Working long hours for both partners has become a norm in India. In such a case they are left with very little quality time for their children. Like any deficiency of proteins & vitamins leads to some disease, future India seems heading to a blight. A very popular ad on television where a child manually changes the time on a clock very much sums up the gravity of the situation. The art of parenting is loosing its sheen. Although economically they must be ensuring them good schooling & comfort but morally a child isn't developing. In earlier days for most children their role models happen to be their parents. Parents crafted their children's lives. Each & every manner reflecting the impression of their parents in their lives. Much has changed now. Today parents try to offset the lack of quality time spent with their children by buying them whatever they yearn for therby loosing control of their lives. Children have the ability to pick up things quickly not knowing what is right & what is wrong. Yesterday when i was halting at a traffic red light, I saw a couple with their 2 children racing past me. Now what a lesson are they trying to teach their children! The are numerous things that a child learns from his/her parents. Unknowingly or knowingly any time we compromise on moral values we are teaching our future generation a bad lesson. Unfortunately many of us are so busy with our work that we knowingly ignore the good practices of life. Don't you think this spells a danger for our country which has so many issues to deal with? How can things change if we become so irresponsible to our children forget anybody else. A small act of kindness has become such a rare commodity that it receives thousands of likes on Fb. The younger generation probably exsists on social networking sites only.

                                                    The basic art of Parenting includes giving time to children, telling them what is right & what is wrong, talking to them, understanding them & therby take better decisions for them, imbibing in them the moral values of discipline, honesty, humbleness, respecting people, showing gratitude, helping others, standing against injustice etc etc. A dialogue between parents & children is the most important bond that keeps them together. Unfortunately the bond is weakening day by day. The whole effort seems to be on building the bank balance for a better future of their children. What use is that future when the present seems to be in a lurch. The today's parents can very well take a leaf out of their parents' life to master the 'Art of Parenting'.

Comments are invited.

My Idea Of India

Every Indian has his/her own idea of India. Every idea that sees their country being the epitome in all fields. So it is our own responsibility to make our idea a reality & thereby perform our fundamental duties well. Well my idea of India starts with the fundamental. The foundation of a structure is the biggest strength of it. Similarly our nation has a strong foundation but there has been a deliberate attempt to weaken it in recent days.

                                                          One of the strongest pillars of the nation is education. Today with every passing day the moral values are on the wane as a result the duties we are ought to perform has ceased to happen. Pluralistic society of ours has been taken over by individualistic society & the friction between them is hurting the proud soul of our motherland. So education has a very important role to play.When it comes to education the whole system involved in it has to make a call.In the recent times educational institutions have been involved in a competition of showing off. & whenever there is a showoff only the outer layer of the structure seems lightened up much like us humans who dress well clothes but not ideas. The competition for name & fame has left the foundation take the digging & recent incidences happening across the schools throughout the nation testify it. Secondly the quality of education is one serious question for the accountable to answer. We are losing quality teachers with the bait of money offered by institutions funded by big business houses. We need to check this infiltration. Why don't my fellow countrymen voice this concern as today they have been empowered with social networking sites like facebook, twitter etc. They do have time to advice people what to eat, what to watch & send people to wherever they like. I urge all of them to do something contributing on their part for education. The third aspect is parents. The recent cases of suicides in Kota directly bring parents & the society under the scanner. A country which has huge scope in multi-directional fields zero in medical & engineering as the only respectable professions. My dear parents we lack quality teachers, researchers, economists etc, cant u give them more options & therefore little more space to live. If you can do that my idea of India would be very closer to my real India. Education in the formative years develops a child & that is how he/she starts his/her journey. If the foundation in the child isn't strong my nation is at risk. Youth today has the energy to change the fortune of any nation. For my nation to make it a reality a strong youth is needed. Education therefore has to be our primary focus. A strong education system empowers a nation. Though our education system is strong but it needs little more refinement. This would also create more employment opportunities as well. As a nation our pace of development will therefore increase a lot.

                                            The concept of a strong education system is an abstract one. One can measure in terms of degree if it has improved or not on a relative scale but not in figures. The second concept which is abstract in sense but can be figured in numbers is the Global Happiness Index.We have always discussed about the GDP & national income only & have taken them as the ruling parameters for development. But GHP is perhaps the best way of measuring real development after all man is a social animal. It takes into account GDP, life expectancy, reliability on others, freedom to make choices, freedom from corruption & generosity. The World Happiness Report 2013 unfortunately ranks India at 111. Denmark, Norway followed by Switzerland occupying the top three spots. Interestingly & ironically US ranks 17 clearly stating that GDP alone is the not the real criterion for development. In fact in most of the international rankings India performs surprisingly poor. Consider a situation 10-12 years ago when in a small town in India there used be 1-2 telephones in a locality & everyone used to rely on it only for communication. Those days the inter communication & related to it was communal harmony among people was at its peak though communication to outstation could be minimal. But happiness was more so was the position on social issues therefore better was India's record on happiness index. Now today GDP might be growing but GHP is not with that respect. Isn't it alarming. My idea of India still stands a good distance away.We need thousands of people like Mr President Kalam to make my idea of India a reality. Instead of taking a political stand I urge all my fellow countrymen to take their good stand on  nation building instead of being involved in infighting.

                 Our nation is the strongest nation & we all will prove that by changing our mindset to make the fundamentals stronger day by day by imparting quality education to our children & improving our happiness index by living a more meaningful life as a proud citizen of this great nation. Jai Hind.

In search of peace

The whole idea of being on earth as I have realised over the last 2 years after pondering for days & nights is to find real satisfaction that gives one peace of mind. It is indeed a very tough task for all - those who have mone, those who dont have money & those who have little & probably need a few more. The human greed indeed often grows no matter where we stand today. I was , days back talking to my friend who earns a hefty sum of a month, complaining that it is not sufficient for him to sustain well in society. I was wondering how in life all humans just dont have an end to their desires & wishes. This is indeed the root cause of us falling prey to the materiastic needs. Aren't people earning lesser than him living?? We all are therefore somewhere handcuffed in a world of desires which are never ending. It is very simple to understand that money is just a matter of airthmatic as it adds, sometimes reduces, for some it multiplies & many divide it as well. But the matter of fact remains that the life can be made beautiful but deriving the maximum level of satisfaction by doing the work we are passionate for. The equations of life then would look easier & comprehensible.
                        Today when one looks around we find all the people wearing a mask of showoff. The emotions of love, compassion, humbleness & humanity does not have an invitation to our dictionaries & looks more often that these words are resting well in peace. But we have to understand that life can only be rejuvenated when one understands that the beauty of life lies in simple moments of realisation of the magic that we create everyday by feeling the gravity the emotions mentioned above, carries. The mantra of living a happening life is breaking the so called shackles of life which has imprisioned us ever since we lost the innocense of a child & declared ourself as grown up. I think that as we have grown up, we have become mature & therefore sometimes too serious about life, taking deep dives in the ocean of thinking, which perhaps is not required most of the times. To smile naturally greeting someone seems a distant dream long achieved. To help someone in need & showing gratitude to people who have stayed with us at tougher times seems like the script of scriptures that were written decades back. The pace of life today has geared up so highly that we have started ignoring the simplicity of life. This is where we need to find the peace. The search of peace has just begun.......