Hi, good "early" morning. Well, there are so many things that I observe while coming to office and going back to home, thanks to our cab. Every ride is equally same and yet different. Same, because of the same route, same traffic, same bumps, same time, same fellow passengers etc etc. Different because of finding new potholes in the road (or no road), new latest model cars and bikes on the road, traffic jams in unbelievable places and how our deft driver takes us out of that jam and so on.
There are so many observations that I make on my way. But won't burden you with all of them at once. So, would share them with you one by one.
Observation 1:
School Kids.
Some sleepy, rubbing their eyes, some full of excitement; some lean & thin, some obese; some very cute, some not so cute; some wearing carefully ironed uniform, some just got lucky to find the crumpled uniform in the cupboard. As they wait for their school buses, we also pass them everyday in our cab. They don't know me and I don't know them, but still, if any one of them is missing on some day, my mind automatically starts making wild guesses. The kid might be sick today, or today might a school holiday, or may be going on a picnic.
Now the observation, rather two observations.
The kids are either accompanied by their mothers or fathers or some are brave enough to wait for the bus alone. Mothers are always worried about something. You can make out from their faces. Have you completed your homework, have you taken your tiffin box, are you wearing right uniform and shoes, did I miss any note in your diary, are your nails trimmed, why has the bus not come as yet... The list is almost endless. Fathers are almost indifferent to the situation. They would standstill while the over enthusiastic kid is trying to tell his activities in the school. The fathers wait more impatiently for the bus to arrive than the kid, except for few of them.
The next observation. As a kid, my mother made sure that I and my brother carries our school bags and bottles by ourselves. But now, the mother or the father carries the heavy bags and the bottles and the kid is either carrying nothing or just a little handbag for may be a drawing book or extra accessories. The exceptions are the kids going to the government schools all by themselves on their foot. The excuse is that the kids are already overburdened with studies and they are too small to carry heavy bags. These “overburdened” kids have to just carry their bags from their flats to the pick up point, then they get on to the school bus, get down at the school and thats it. The other poor kids who manage to attend school somehow, carry everything by themselves and travel all the way to school on their foot. Why are the parents over-protecting their child by carrying their bags, even keeping their books and copies in the bag a night before. Let the kid handle it himself. He should know what to keep in the bag. Parents need to monitor them and help them out rather than making them focus solely on studies and get highest marks.
And yes, how did I forget this. The uniforms of the new age private schools are becoming more trendy. In my time, we had typical of white, or blue skirts in summers and steel gray in winters and white shirt. I got my first wrist watch when I came in 8th standard. But now, they are wearing the latest wrist watches. All this makes me feel how old I am. Aaaah !!!! It hurts.
Well, these are the two (or three) observations about the school kids. More to follow. CHEERS !!!
Now the observation, rather two observations.
The kids are either accompanied by their mothers or fathers or some are brave enough to wait for the bus alone. Mothers are always worried about something. You can make out from their faces. Have you completed your homework, have you taken your tiffin box, are you wearing right uniform and shoes, did I miss any note in your diary, are your nails trimmed, why has the bus not come as yet... The list is almost endless. Fathers are almost indifferent to the situation. They would standstill while the over enthusiastic kid is trying to tell his activities in the school. The fathers wait more impatiently for the bus to arrive than the kid, except for few of them.
The next observation. As a kid, my mother made sure that I and my brother carries our school bags and bottles by ourselves. But now, the mother or the father carries the heavy bags and the bottles and the kid is either carrying nothing or just a little handbag for may be a drawing book or extra accessories. The exceptions are the kids going to the government schools all by themselves on their foot. The excuse is that the kids are already overburdened with studies and they are too small to carry heavy bags. These “overburdened” kids have to just carry their bags from their flats to the pick up point, then they get on to the school bus, get down at the school and thats it. The other poor kids who manage to attend school somehow, carry everything by themselves and travel all the way to school on their foot. Why are the parents over-protecting their child by carrying their bags, even keeping their books and copies in the bag a night before. Let the kid handle it himself. He should know what to keep in the bag. Parents need to monitor them and help them out rather than making them focus solely on studies and get highest marks.
And yes, how did I forget this. The uniforms of the new age private schools are becoming more trendy. In my time, we had typical of white, or blue skirts in summers and steel gray in winters and white shirt. I got my first wrist watch when I came in 8th standard. But now, they are wearing the latest wrist watches. All this makes me feel how old I am. Aaaah !!!! It hurts.
Well, these are the two (or three) observations about the school kids. More to follow. CHEERS !!!
heyi ,... nice observation yaar !! Agreed to some extent but I have a point to make ... Don't overlook the burden of carrying larger number of books and notebooks now a days....Even a nursery class child today has to carry atleast 5-6 boooks + same number of notebooks ...so the weight of the bag has definitely increased past 10 yrs .... we ppl never had such a huge baggage to carry it to the school..itna bojh bacchey kaise utha payenge bhai ??....Its a punishment on them ..I don't think parents are not doing good helping their kids in transferring the load on them ....but yes , I agree on the other part of the story ...keeping books in the bag a night before ...this exercise should entirely be performed by the child itself!! ...Overall a nice article by you Nikki ...keep going ....!!
ReplyDelete