kids – Views Splash!

A Cooked Blog

Sometimes I wonder what attracts you more to me, a love for the unknown? A love for the hatred I have for the world? Curiosity for the time unknown? Unseen acts of horror, unprecedented valor, or kindness?

I feel you touch a piece of me everyday but never whole. The tingle that wakes up my sensations, often leaves my soul wanting for more. I get you one finger pore at a time and with each touch, the yearning for wholeness turns my skin inside out. Why can’t I have you more? Why don’t I get you more?

Can’t blame you though, my readers, for we are all travellers in the same boat. Kids, wife, parents, office, home, horrifying relatives, and time killing neighbors – they consume so much of our time and brain that there’s none left for us to use at the end of the day. Still we are motivated to do what’s right for us – write for ourselves, it’s an obligation to the inner you, isn’t it? You reach the desk at the last hour of the day, pick up your pieces of thoughts and right when you are about to hit the keyboard, you lose power. People with laptops can still work for a while but not desktop users like me. Our day just got pushed into a dark oblivion when there’s no option but to sleep, the thoughts still currying inside, the flavors dying to spill out on to a writing pad or a web page. But luck is having none of it!

I’ve been under such a spell since past 3 months. Everyday is a struggle – to stay awake, concentrate, be healthier, see certain things the way I would a few years ago, keep focus on the future all the while learning from the past and (the one that tops it off) yet, be fun.

My irritability around this time of the year isn’t a new phenomenon. From an early age, I found June, July, August and September – the hardest to deal with. Whether it be my bone crushing accidents, to hysteria among the people around me, diseases – it’s like a kill-switch turns on. People die, there are terrible news all around and concentrating is the last thing my brain does. This is also the time I wish, time should just fly by never concerning me with its nitty-gritty. These are easily the most non-productive months of my year. Do you have any months that particularly seem to concern you – ones that freeze your hands, swell your feet, numb your mind for the world around just picks up its frantic pace and tries to drag you with it?

It is these months though, I expect my dear readers to show me some love and be kind enough to keep this space engaged. And how well you’ve done it, BRAVO! You’ve read and read my stuff, appreciated it, hunted down my errors even when I wasn’t there for you…

“You Cooked My Blog“!

And now it’s time for me put some dishes on the front burner and stir the pot to see what comes out next.

How Wrong Was I?

Innocence in flesh and bones – that’s what kids are. They know no trivialities, no problems and the world around them more often than not turns perfect if they are born in a family of more than mediocre means. They are well provided, loved and taught.

On my journey back to Delhi, I met two such kids. Lovely and energetic duo. Would have loved to give their names but after a lot of thought, I’ve decided to keep them anonymous. They were students from 5th grade, on their way to Agra for their annual school trip. They took the window seats beside me and the train started chugging. I pulled out my headphones, grabbed my novel and started reading – The Associate by John Grisham.

At first they pretended to be shy and didn’t talk much, but then the tea arrived and with it came our first conversation while I was preparing my tea from a tea-bag, dried milk and hot water –

“Bhaiya (elder brother), would you mind if I watch you?” he said pointing at the tea.

“No, not at all!”.

And then I taught him how to prepare tea while his all-knowing buddy kept instructing him from behind. They had very sweet voices and I may sound soft for such a hard spoken man but I have no better words to explain how their manners combined with their voices, won my heart completely. They kept asking me questions about myself – if I was married, if it was a love marriage and we kept holding the conversations. I liked answering them even when they never cared to let me read my novel. There was something very satisfying to go with their flow. They kept asking me to leave some space to let them use the loo and I obliged. On other days or with other kids, I may have even kicked their teeth in after the third or the fourth time but not them. With every passing quarter-hour, they kept spreading the word about a “Super Cool”, “Super Awesome” Bhaiya who would let them listen to the amazing songs on his phone. They even learnt the password for my phone the very first time they saw me drawing it.

One by one each of their mates came and shook hands and told me – “You are truly awesome Bhaiya!” full of reverence. I could only smile.

They kept arguing about my age, if I am 18 or 40. Some told me that I look very fearsome sometimes and some said I looked sweet and cute. Some were confused whether they should call me Uncle or Bhaiya. For them, Uncles are married and Bhaiyas aren’t. The two beside me had a strategy and I’m gonna lay it out flat in front of the world – “Their Secret” – both of them were very adept at impressing their teachers and used their impression to get extra marks.

At some point there was a cut throat race between the students to impress their teachers with food. Our lad here, who had a pizza in his bag, held all the aces though. When the rummaging was going on, he, with a bang, pulled out his box and offered the entire thing to his teacher. He looked all around and with this move stopped all the scuffing for food. He was proud and it showed on his face. It wasn’t going to last long though. When he landed back on his seat, he wanted his pizza back. He now wanted to share it with his best buddies and not her but couldn’t ask the box back. He kept cribbing for next 20 minutes about it when the box landed in his lap and the teacher, who wasn’t too interested in the pizza, asked him to offer it to other teachers. The boy though had other ideas. He quietly slipped it back in his bag and pretended he hadn’t heard what the teacher had told him. I was laughing my ass off!

They kept offering me eatables though (including the pizza) but I stuck to my philosophy to not eat from any strangers when travelling.

They even made me give their parents missed calls, so that they could call back. I was the main subject in those calls too.

But what happened at the end of their journey struck me the most. One of those two kids, came running back from the door and touched my feet as mark of respect to the elders. I just touched his face and said – “Now go. You are late!”

When they left, I could only think about my mortal nausea at seeing so many kids together at the platform and dreading my journey from there on. How wrong was I?

Kids and Internet+Sex

What makes you a kid?

A desire to be playful.

Desire to play X-box/video games/computer games.

Desire to play pranks all the time.

Desire to stay with friends and never be responsible for your actions with parents intrusion a mandate.

Don’t know about today’s time but in our days, kids were just kids. They played, ate and studied. That’s it. No responsibilities, just chores to do, games to play and books to study.

But look at the kids today. They have a host of activities given to them by their schools. They know a lot, they can configure internet by themselves, facebooking, twittering on iPhones, Samsungs and flying, dancing, creating creative videos. I like this and this is how kids should be. Malleable to the extent that they turn into what their parents would ever want them be. Some parents though leave it to their children to find out their own paths only for their own laziness sake and fail to take notice of the direction in which the child is being brought up. The kids then are left to learn on their own and often land into dangerous zones.

Some of the kids are so smart, they know more about sex than some of us married adults do. They know what porn is at the age of 7 or 8, they are already circulating porn clips over bluetooth, wi-fi and 3G/4G. It’s amazing how kids these days get so much information when there are firewalls, software’s that prevent accessing such websites and PC configurations that allow only certain users to login. Have parents no idea what kids can get into with all this information? They are young playful minds and hardly ever do they know what stuff do they have their hands on.

In our days, parents used to govern over what time would we go out to play and they would check whether we had finished our assignments. My mother used to put a PC password so we don’t break into the computer and start playing games while they went for a walk in their evenings. I don’t think it happens today at all. The kids take to tuition very early and parents sometimes relieve themselves of their duties to monitor their outdoor activities. Keeping away from home for extra hours citing extra tuition hours and other such blackmails often land parents and children into a tussle over trust.

Kids just know so much these days like their childhood has completely been engulfed by Google. Are there any outdoor activities at all? Are they strong? Do they carry even half of our immunity? They are given what they want because they, from either internet or friends, have figured out ways to blackmail their parents.

Facebook properly teaches them what the meaning of fuck is. All kinds of swears in every possible language are freely accessible and they learn it, and one day BAM, in front of parents, lands a swear bomb!

I can say that yes there is an age when children ought to be left free to learn and parents should indulge in it as well to keep a tab on the quality of education the young ones receive. Teach them about internet – it’s pro’s and con’s. Teach them about sex and how (it), if had prematurely, can land a child in trouble.

I write this as I see kids around me and all I can say that if not the most fulfilling but I had a very safe childhood while these kids are losing their way early. May be they’ll be smarter but I can’t guarantee a lot of self-respect.

I don’t want to indulge the parents who have been successfully raising their children full of values. Here I only talk about parents and kids who have faltered.

Tag: kids

A Cooked Blog

How Wrong Was I?

Kids and Internet+Sex

Lemonade is for Losers!

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