Yesterday, when I was browsing the television channels I saw a glimpse of the movie Maine Pyar Kyon Kiya. The scene I saw was in which Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif were enjoying with some kids (I didn’t see any other scene so I don’t have any idea who those kids were). In that scene, the child asks Katrina Kaif if she knows how kids are born. Katrina Kaif answers very tactfully that God gives children to girls when they get married. And the child’s reaction was quick; he pitied Katrina Kaif for not knowing the correct answer!
When I gave it a thought, I realized that it was very much true in today’s sense.

It’s not a question of loss of childhood. It’s hard to find a child these days who doesn’t think like an adult already. It’s about the role parents are thrusting upon them. I mean, am I the only person who feels angry every time Sushmita Sen goes to press conferences with her favourite accessory, her daughter Renee, who is made to sing songs, kiss her mommy and look adorable? Are the Rakhi Sawants of this world not enough to dance and pose for our attention.

Why is everybody trying to make their children some performing fleas?
As if the children were not enough telling adults what to consume and where to spend (from movies to cars), now they are also capturing the headlines. Take the 3-yr old Anant who was kidnapped from Noida, last week; or 5-yr old Prince who fell into an open shaft in his village; or 16-yr old Akansha, who sang non-stop for 61 hrs trying to get into Guinness Book of World Records. The wall-to-wall coverage of Prince’s rescue got news channels soap-like viewership, impossible for any non- Star Plus soap or a non- cricket event in our country.

Let the children go back to doing what they do best. Being themselves, sometimes idiotic, often affectionate and always enquiring.

Let us all be just ourself and let others be just themselves.