If you trust what almost every new parent say, every child is atleast a genius if not a prodigy. Every random motion of the child is taken as being unique, and every utterance is considered to be a word of wisdom. Every attempt made by the kid to imitate the elders is considered as a sign of a unmatched intelligence which warrants being described to every ear within reach. And with the spread of communication technology, the number of ears within reach is exploding.
The senseless urgency for the child to grow up faster, learn faster than average takes its own toll. And with every generation the adulation of the 'faster' kids keeps growing. According to the anecdotes heard, it was just 2 geenerations ago that parents did not care where the kids are and what they are doing at school. It was important for the kid to go to school and the parent's role ended there. But then slowly the performance in school started getting counted. I thought the phenomenon had reached a pinnacle when I heard a parent of a 5 year old bragging about the 'performance' of her kid in school. But I was proven wrong. Now not only the 5 year olds are expected to perform in academics, but also in sports and chess and dance shows and art.
It is natural for the parents and the society to give importance for performance, but how much importance is appropriate? A child (almost everybody nowadays) grows up having either a superirority complex and complacency by the time he has reached 15, or more likely having no selfworth regarding any of his/her talents. The ego is worth only as much as marks recieved.
It does not take much time for the senseless urgency to convert into urge for sensationalism. After all, not every act in life can be evaluated as marks or rank in exam. Whenever something cannot be evaluated objectively, the only other alternative available is to measure recieved appreciation. And in a society which values marks over knowledge, quantity over quality, it is a simple matter of sensationalising the performance to recieve greater attention and relatively more appreciation.
A simple act of taking a vacation becomes an affair where more photos are uploaded (preferably realtime) than words exchanged. An act of buying a phone used for making calls becomes a mini computer plus a camera and a music system and a gaming device which can be used to 'hang-out' with online friends rather than spending the same time in solitude. The world should know what you are doing at every moment and your every moment revolves around doing what world expects.
Long gone are the days when people used to work for own satisfaction, enjoy for own satisfaction and sleep for own satisfaction. Its the age of sensationalism and of urgency.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Sunday, August 09, 2009
Race against Time
I set my alarm for early morning 6 AM, as usual. And I slept. I was still sleeping when suddenly i felt the lights dim all around me and a shadow lurking behind the curtains. It crept up slowly near my bed. A Satan it was, full with a set of horns on its head and a wicked smile. The Satan extended its hand. I wanted to wake up desperately, but Satan must have put a spell on me. I struggled. The Satan was almost near me. I shouted at him, but I think Satan's either dont have ears or dont care about living things. It picked up my Alarm clock and set it at 8:30. Having done this it disappeared with another wicked smile. I cursed loudly, and that must have woken me (real me) up. I was sitting on my bed, sweating profusely, and looking at my clock which was still showing 5 minutes to 6. I thanked god for not having sent Satan down. On second thought, I thanked the satan for coming into my dreams. Now I have 5 more minutes. All the emphasis on 5.
I had a deadline to meet at 8:30. It was a daily deadline, or rather it should be dead-or-alive-line. It gives me shivers to think of what happens to people who miss the deadline. Some of them are never seen again.
I was brushing my teeth and at the same time trying to heat water for my tea, when the bell rang. It was the neighbour kid Elmo, 6 years old and almost a Calvin of Calvin-and-hobbes fame. He had made up a habit to visit me early in the morning. He says that by watching my 'get-ready-in-time' show first thing in the morning, makes his school bearable. He says that he has changed his mind. Unlike other kids, he never wants to grow up. His schecule is tight enough. He cant stand any more deadlines.
Now, that I had an audience, I had an expectation to live upto. Remeber that when I opened the door, I was still brushing my teeth and tea was on stove. Then I remembered that I had not swicthed on Water Geyser for heating. As I was reaching out for a swicth the power went out. It must be the regular load-shedding which I dint know about. A snort of suppressed laughter gave me the feed back that my curse had been heard by the audience and was well-appreciated. So, Cold Water Bath it is.
Now, having made peace with the situation, I took a cup of tea and wanted to relish its feeling, when the milk man came to deliver the milk. It was his pay day today and he wanted to get some advance for the next month too. I told him that he had already taken advance in the previous month. He seems to have known about the deadline and he kept requesting in slow monotonous drool. I lost my patience and gave him 2 months of advance. The way he greeted Elmo confirmed my suspicion both about Milkman having the crucial deadline information as well as the the source of it.
Now, this transaction with the milk man had eaten into much more than the tea-time and I had to leave the cup full of now-cold tea into the sink and run for my cold water bath. Water was freezing and each mug full of cold water on my body was accompanies by a groan (from me) and a clap from outside the door from the audience (or rather hear-ience right now).
Locking the door, looking at the pleased Elmo walking towards his home, I sat on my bike. Praying to god that the bike was in good mood today and starts in the first kick. It was a good day for the bike and within no time I was zooming on the pot-holed roads. More than once I managed to get on the foot path to avoid a slow moving truck or a auto. I felt like I was on cloud nine, when I found the railway gate barring my way. I panicked looking at my watch, and instead of waiting for the train I took off from below the railway gates. Thats when my saner mind realized the train was rushing towards me. There was a lots of gasps and sparks of brake while I was standing on the railway tracks stupefied. The driver managed to stop the train, came down shaking his hand and was about to blast me when he saw my ID card. A smile came on his face, and told me that he had a nephew in the same company and was aware of the early-morning plight. With a Fatherly tap on my shoulders, he helped me accross the other gate. As I was starting my bike again, I heard him say something about my coworkers plight and some of the other drivers nodded in empathy.
Having managed to defy death once, I was on cloud ten. I felt has if Yama-raja himself was riding on as a pillion on my bike and clearing the traffic. I entered the campus where there was an atmosphere of finish line of Marathon World Championship. There were people with flags of various divisions in ATD. I caught the glimse of couple of bookies and people placing bets. There were horns and drums and lot of cheering and booing. The big clock in front of the office was showing 2 minutes to deadline. I braked behind a parked car, and in one swoop locked the bike and pulled down the stand. I was running towards the swipe gates when I realised that I had blocked the way for the man in the car who wanted to take it away. I signalled him to wait for few seconds.
I ran towards the swipe gate, when couple of security guards brought me water bottle and lime to replinish my lost salts. I drank a bit and put rest of teh water over my head to cool it. I was very near the swipe gate and I swiped it, with 30 seconds to spare.
Suddenly there was a lot of firecrackers and even more people coming to congratulate me. A broad smile on my face told the world how glad I was. First a drop of water fell on my face, from my hair I guess. But then there came a bottle full of it.
I opened my eyes. I was still on my bed and my wife with a water bottle in hand, was telling me something about getting late again for office.
I had a deadline to meet at 8:30. It was a daily deadline, or rather it should be dead-or-alive-line. It gives me shivers to think of what happens to people who miss the deadline. Some of them are never seen again.
I was brushing my teeth and at the same time trying to heat water for my tea, when the bell rang. It was the neighbour kid Elmo, 6 years old and almost a Calvin of Calvin-and-hobbes fame. He had made up a habit to visit me early in the morning. He says that by watching my 'get-ready-in-time' show first thing in the morning, makes his school bearable. He says that he has changed his mind. Unlike other kids, he never wants to grow up. His schecule is tight enough. He cant stand any more deadlines.
Now, that I had an audience, I had an expectation to live upto. Remeber that when I opened the door, I was still brushing my teeth and tea was on stove. Then I remembered that I had not swicthed on Water Geyser for heating. As I was reaching out for a swicth the power went out. It must be the regular load-shedding which I dint know about. A snort of suppressed laughter gave me the feed back that my curse had been heard by the audience and was well-appreciated. So, Cold Water Bath it is.
Now, having made peace with the situation, I took a cup of tea and wanted to relish its feeling, when the milk man came to deliver the milk. It was his pay day today and he wanted to get some advance for the next month too. I told him that he had already taken advance in the previous month. He seems to have known about the deadline and he kept requesting in slow monotonous drool. I lost my patience and gave him 2 months of advance. The way he greeted Elmo confirmed my suspicion both about Milkman having the crucial deadline information as well as the the source of it.
Now, this transaction with the milk man had eaten into much more than the tea-time and I had to leave the cup full of now-cold tea into the sink and run for my cold water bath. Water was freezing and each mug full of cold water on my body was accompanies by a groan (from me) and a clap from outside the door from the audience (or rather hear-ience right now).
Locking the door, looking at the pleased Elmo walking towards his home, I sat on my bike. Praying to god that the bike was in good mood today and starts in the first kick. It was a good day for the bike and within no time I was zooming on the pot-holed roads. More than once I managed to get on the foot path to avoid a slow moving truck or a auto. I felt like I was on cloud nine, when I found the railway gate barring my way. I panicked looking at my watch, and instead of waiting for the train I took off from below the railway gates. Thats when my saner mind realized the train was rushing towards me. There was a lots of gasps and sparks of brake while I was standing on the railway tracks stupefied. The driver managed to stop the train, came down shaking his hand and was about to blast me when he saw my ID card. A smile came on his face, and told me that he had a nephew in the same company and was aware of the early-morning plight. With a Fatherly tap on my shoulders, he helped me accross the other gate. As I was starting my bike again, I heard him say something about my coworkers plight and some of the other drivers nodded in empathy.
Having managed to defy death once, I was on cloud ten. I felt has if Yama-raja himself was riding on as a pillion on my bike and clearing the traffic. I entered the campus where there was an atmosphere of finish line of Marathon World Championship. There were people with flags of various divisions in ATD. I caught the glimse of couple of bookies and people placing bets. There were horns and drums and lot of cheering and booing. The big clock in front of the office was showing 2 minutes to deadline. I braked behind a parked car, and in one swoop locked the bike and pulled down the stand. I was running towards the swipe gates when I realised that I had blocked the way for the man in the car who wanted to take it away. I signalled him to wait for few seconds.
I ran towards the swipe gate, when couple of security guards brought me water bottle and lime to replinish my lost salts. I drank a bit and put rest of teh water over my head to cool it. I was very near the swipe gate and I swiped it, with 30 seconds to spare.
Suddenly there was a lot of firecrackers and even more people coming to congratulate me. A broad smile on my face told the world how glad I was. First a drop of water fell on my face, from my hair I guess. But then there came a bottle full of it.
I opened my eyes. I was still on my bed and my wife with a water bottle in hand, was telling me something about getting late again for office.
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