What’s something you do completely differently from how you were raised?
In most households, when children are raised, there is a lot of genuine love, care and a vague perception of a bright future that might be ahead. Today there are many parents who encourage their children to find their own paths in life. There is an efficient education system developed over the time to cater to the individuality of the children, focussing upon what interests them and what are the necessary essentials lacking.
That said, there are still some parents who take raising children seriously, maybe too seriously, with a constant surveillance of whether the child shows symptoms of anything other than the fixed life’s plan they have set. They can even traumatise the teachers with what they want him/her to do and they want it to be done exactly that way. Somewhere the lacking achievement of their own ambitions are burdened on the shoulders of the child. What they don’t realise is that there is a good amount of risk of a dark future.
When it comes to children, how can we leave our beloved society, actually a certain percentage of it who have somehow self-appointed themselves as judge of how good or bad a child is according to their set parameters. They have set themselves the task of thinking and commenting on why something is not happening the way they think should happen in a particular child’s life. Well of course these people have a lot of questions like why a doctor’s son/daughter became a photographer, blaming the parents for not paying enough attention. Good thing is these people are quite easy to ignore and shut out.
Life is full of experiences of different tones; it differs from person to person. Now how far we carry the values of the ways we were raised also differs a lot from person to person. Like many have pointed out before me and I will do as well, that the world is changing at a very fast pace, you can recall your childhood and the time when you became an adult, the difference that occurred in the world in all that time. Similarly, the question is how much can you prepare, especially in a world that is changing overnight. I did carry a good amount of important learnings from the way I was raised, but I realised through experiences that there was a good amount that was not practical in the world I was living in or facing. Like the world has become quite complex and one has to be aware of so much more than before. Trust is not as easy to give as before. The close bonds among family are fading. With time people are becoming more isolated, they have less and less time to actually enjoy the little time we have in this world. In brief, life feels less vast and big than before, and I was not prepared for it in the way I was raised, and I only realised it when I stepped out and something different was waiting.
Written by Anuran Chatterji
Early Morning Memories 