WHAT IT MEANS TO BE KIDS?

I sat down before the television for yet another music show in a private channel,an opening intro was given by an anchor, followed by the commercial break,(but the actual show seemed to peep in between the ads is another story!)long enough to rewind my memories.I was pondering over when i started watching these kind of shows!?? Those were the days when these programs started attracting a wide variety of people right from kids to older audiences. What adds up spice to these kinds of shows is that the aspiring singers perform in front of their heroes, whom they worship and like who they wanted to be. Really such shows were gifted ones to the budding musicians and still are.
Yeah, the commercial break took a break and opening the musical show was a young kid of age some 8 or 9 yrs, I guess. That episode being the semi final round, made me sit agape. I was all eyes and ears. That guy indeed was awesome and many others followed him and every one of them was equally perfect, marvelous and exuberant and add any adjective of this kind,that ll suits those young prodigies. The show ended, the results were announced and to my shock, the nine year old kid was eliminated.
The organizers of the show were generous enough to telecast the conversations that went on among the participants of the show, their parents and relatives after the announcement of results!!. What haunted me more were those pristine tears, the sense of extreme disappointment in that rosy face, the beauty of that smile conquered by sadness. And that background music u know was like a dirge, an Armageddon, as if the kid has lost the whole world.
You might ask me, failures do happen and why so much of exaggeration for this? You are absolutely right, but what persistently nagged me was that "do a kid need an experience of this kind at a vulnerable age", which is meant be a wreath of joy, a period of worry-free life.
Media, in order to broaden their horizon of audiences, by all means, use these kinds of shows. The winners of these shows are made celebrities. They go out, sign autographs, make musical concerts along with big singers, get sponsors for their costume, perform music GALA amidst a throng of “FANS” and attend school functions as a chief guest and they are treated as everything except as kids. Does’t this inculcate a sense of pride, even arrogance at times in the young mind or is that like we are training the toddlers to be modest. Above all, this kind of hype might create a barrier between these kids and other children. No matter how many uniforms we give them, the mindset of the gullible children would remain unchanged.is it like, When failures hurt so much, success backfires!
When on-screen have so much of things, the work-outs for the competition has no less in contribution. Days and months of preparation,a day-long wait (it may even be more) in the studio and so on. For those from a remote place, a tedious travel is a lagniappe.
These tv shows are not the only means by which the children are burdened, these are the latest attractions in the row of different types of extra curicular activities and competitions to put the tiny tots under pressure, which actually should be an impetus to develop a sense of interest in doing some work,build up a healthy competition and inculcate a sociable atttitude among them.But,things are turning other way round. it develops a kind of hatred, greediness some times even inferiority complex and they develop such a mindset that they become to sensitive to bear with failures.
Last week, I was rather appalled, by the story I heard from my aunt, the mother of my UKG-going cousin. They went to a recitation competition and one parent who came there, unable to bear with the failure of her son, went on beating him, unmindful of the fact that the beautiful bud will not only be bruised physically but psychologically too.Why, so much of thrust upon those young minds?If the parents themselves are so immature and cannot bear with these small disappointments how ll a kid endure simple failures and won't this mentality will have a negative impact in the later part of life?
Sometimes, parents go insane because of too much of predictions and anticipation about their children's future. I am not blaming or hurting the interest of parents, but, it has to be such that the children should have some good amount of time to be kids apart from all their swimming class, extra coaching class, Hindi class, this preparation, that preparation blah blah. Many parents despite knowing this fact,forgets everything altogether especially when they are too much into this world of competition than their wards, forcing their aspirations on them and at times for the joy of bragging about their children among their peers, they want their kids to be perfectionists.i don’t know, I may sound anachronistic for a few, because i still feel nostalgic about my primary-school days and have some sweetest of memories to rely on when I feel hectic unlike the children today who are born to work and compete(sometimes only these things)and will grow up with no time to contemplate the past. After all, even if they wish to, some may not have any such things if things go on in current pace. So, all parents want is to somehow put the children in the safe boat no matter where they land up, unconcerned of whether they ll like it or not.Parents who does things at best interests of their children forgets that sometimes over indulgence and over expectations spoils everything.
who are all accountable,for things happening in the current scenario?The competitive age in which we live ,the society which is stereotypic( I mean , the society supports people only those who does things that is well recognised and don't accept or respect( sometimes even discourage) people who choose the road not taken by others, even if they know that it might be better ),the Parents who are too proactive and too much interested in deciding theirs ward's life at a very early stage itself giving much care to the charm and fame of the present time,taking every action to mould them that way,which would ensure a safe future for their children(Never mind,how much happy and cool their chidren at present).anyways,Whatever or whoever it is, it is high time we draw a boundary for how much we can expect from the young children, how much we can influence them in the budding stage.
If, it is not done, then they will become just a machine engineered for vying and proving themselves the best to the society (Not even to themselves) without knowing the real beauty of life.