Sunday Afternnon-- Home-- The Vagabond of thoughts wandering freely from topic to topic until I decide to put a 'thought-stop' at something that looks interesting enough to stop awhile and be pondered upon.
We urbans, most often or may be completely and dedicatedly, have spent or are making our future generations spend the first many (read 20+) formative years of our lives engrossed in text-books, boasting about the best of international school or competing for that reputed college or duscussing about the grades. We cannot deny this, surprisingly, we do not regret this either. It is after all very important almost necessary to study and excel academically in order to be successful in life and have a enviable life-style!
But, are we not losing out on the most importance essence of this all!? Do we in those years, or our juniors or children, learn even a single chapter of the basic lesson called 'life'? And, here I mean life in real.. do any of these institutions help us learn to be sensitive? Do we ever see grief/joy/suffering/ilness/
For consolation, we take pride in saying we went to a swimming club or our son is captain of his school football team or our daughter is amazing at the ballet-- to kind of prove to ourselves and others that its not just academics that we grow up with.. but, how many of us know what in reality is charity-- sans the definition, how many of us have ever visited an orphanage or hospice to see someone we do not know and console them, how many of us know how an orange or an apple or a banana look like when its a bud on the tree, how many of us have seen it grow and not just the ones available in the markets-- hardly a few...and actually its those few of us, who have a much much better understanding of life, of people.
I would rather urge our future generations to be about average in their academics, but toppers in sensitivity to others, not an A grader in class perhaps but to have a real time passion-- to travel as much as they can, to be as close to nature as possible-- to see not just the good and fancy side of life but the worst possible ones too, in firsthand... may be then, the life-style they'd have would be average but the style of life they lead would be extraordinary!!
We urbans, most often or may be completely and dedicatedly, have spent or are making our future generations spend the first many (read 20+) formative years of our lives engrossed in text-books, boasting about the best of international school or competing for that reputed college or duscussing about the grades. We cannot deny this, surprisingly, we do not regret this either. It is after all very important almost necessary to study and excel academically in order to be successful in life and have a enviable life-style!
But, are we not losing out on the most importance essence of this all!? Do we in those years, or our juniors or children, learn even a single chapter of the basic lesson called 'life'? And, here I mean life in real.. do any of these institutions help us learn to be sensitive? Do we ever see grief/joy/suffering/ilness/
For consolation, we take pride in saying we went to a swimming club or our son is captain of his school football team or our daughter is amazing at the ballet-- to kind of prove to ourselves and others that its not just academics that we grow up with.. but, how many of us know what in reality is charity-- sans the definition, how many of us have ever visited an orphanage or hospice to see someone we do not know and console them, how many of us know how an orange or an apple or a banana look like when its a bud on the tree, how many of us have seen it grow and not just the ones available in the markets-- hardly a few...and actually its those few of us, who have a much much better understanding of life, of people.
I would rather urge our future generations to be about average in their academics, but toppers in sensitivity to others, not an A grader in class perhaps but to have a real time passion-- to travel as much as they can, to be as close to nature as possible-- to see not just the good and fancy side of life but the worst possible ones too, in firsthand... may be then, the life-style they'd have would be average but the style of life they lead would be extraordinary!!
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