Childhood Then and Childhood Now

The children that I see today around me in the schools,streets,at public places like gardens, market and theatre compel me to think about the childhood in the past and childhood in the present times.A tremendous difference strikes me as a spectator.Naturally the spectator gets lost in the thoughts about how,why and what for this change ?the most remarkable change which I notice is the loss of childhood before the stage of childhood goes chronologically.Truly speaking it looks unnatural and to some extent abnormal also if a child start behaving like mature person. One may call it a growth but it is untimely and unwanted.Childhood has to have its own naughty nature. I still rermember how I as a child used to derive joy from simple but most precious acts of childhood like streets games of 'gulli-danda','satodiu'(played with seven flat stones),'hide and seek',marbles,iron rod and wheel, top, etc. etc. I consider it unfortuonate that all such games and innocent joys of life have disappeared completely from the childhood today. No doubt those games were desi, rustic and not sophisticated in modern terms but those games used to teach basic lessons of life. In particular, the lessons of community life physical exercise and tolerance. What is left behind for the children today is nothing except cricket and software of video games. Those games are more given to the mental exercise rather than the physical. The result is that achild today grows mentally well but physically poor. It violets the simple rule of sound mind in a sound body. Without sound mind, how far can a sound mind work ? While going to the school. stoning at amango tree,cutting a green mango with a small knife and sprinkling on it home-made masala in the form of a mixture of salt,sugar.red chilly powder and enjoying it in the company of friends was perhaps the most pleasant experience of life.That masala used to be klept in a small bottle with a hole in its lid for sprinkling. Today I nomore notice those innoceent joys among children. It has been replaced with discussions on the hindi movies,conversations on the actors and actresses fashions and all other unnecessary things.The joy of chana.salty groundnuts and paunva has been replaced with puf.samosa burger and piza. It pains me to see how small children and teenagers have become the victims of junk-food. They consider it below their dignity to be simple and nutricious in their refreshment.The change has made its impact on the dressing code also.I remember no child in those days objected to wearing shorts with patch on the back.One can not even imagine imagine it in the recent times. Children have become more status conscious than the grown up.Father may wear old clothes but children wont be ready to do it. In brief our existence has been swept away with the materialistic attitude to such an extent that we have lost the sense of what isa good and what is bad for us and children are not exception to it. As a spectator I feel sad about the whole seen prevailing among the children and come to conviction that the paradise of children is indeed lost.