“The Child is the father of man” quoted William Wordsworth in his famous poem “Rainbow” .They say poems are mostly the reflections of the poet’s thoughts and observations of real life, and rightly so because there can be nothing closer to the truth than the fact that what a man becomes depends entirely on what he was as a child.
Our lives can be understood like the clay moulding process .When the clay is new and totally wet u can mould it the way you like, like the way you can mould the mind of a child .As you grow old and the clay starts getting dry ,the moulding process stops, we become rigid in our thoughts and ways ,and we become the people we live to be.
They say “Home is the first school and parents are the first teachers “which is the universal truth. As children we learn what we see. A child born in a Punjabi starts his day by wishing “Sat-Sri-Akal” to his elders while a UP kid would just go and wish “Pranaam”. We owe our culture, values, principles and the people we are to our homes, our parents and our childhood.
What we learn as a kid stays with us forever as the imprints are always there on the clay unless you dissolve it completely. We often expect the child to follow in his parents’ footsteps, why? That’s because as a child you live in that atmosphere, you see your parents work with passion, enjoy their work and then you aspire to join their league.
We all still remember our mother’s warning “Dont talk to strangers dear” ...dont we??? And till date talking to strangers gets a strange feel in us. We are no longer afraid of talking to strangers yet that warning comes into our minds once in a while. We still believe on the age old superstition of not moving forward if the cat crossed your way...because thats what we were told by our mothers and they were told by their mothers and so the chain continues.
We all were lucky to live in atmosphere where kids played more and studied less...have fun with friends offline ...play under the sky and not in front of the laptop...when marks mattered but were definitely not the subject for life and death..but the Gen next kids ??? they are not so “laid –back” ...they have to compete for that one seat available in KG class of the city’s premier school...they have to top the batch to meet their parents’ expectations ..to get promoted to the next best school....You are not a 98% holder??? Pity you!!!! Is this the way we want to them to be when they grow up???Do we not want them to have a mind of their own but just keep running in the rat race till the point it drives them mad??? They are our future ....we have to give a better upbringing than the one we received...We have to make them free birds so they have their own opinions , their own interests , their own unique personalities and not like twenty others...
Today we are responsible for making the men for tomorrow...and we have to make sure that they develop to become men and not rats....let them be free , pursue their dreams and be the men they want to be....
"A child is a person who is going to carry on what you have started. He is going to sit where you are sitting, and when you are gone, attend to those things which you think are important. You may adopt all the policies you please, but how they are carried out depends on him. He will assume control of your cities, states and nations. He is going to move in and take over your churches, schools, universities, and corporations. All your books are going to be judged, praised or condemned by him. The fate of humanity is in his hands."- Abraham Lincoln
This article owes its title and inspiration to our college and the PRAYATNA guys.....
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