If you ask your grandparents what their life was like when they were kids, the response would be that they were not like us. Your grandmother might say that they had a lot of household chores to do. Many of them could not go to school as they could not afford it. Sometimes, girls went to school for a few years and then were withdrawn from school.
Imagine how it was to have been born at that time?
Well, you may think that they were lucky as they did not have to study. But, have you ever considered the advantages of education? How unlucky they must have been to not have a common language to be able to make oneself understood anywhere around the world, and to not have been able to understand so much about the world. But then again, they learnt useful skills. They also had more time out in the sun playing, rather than sitting indoors with friends and playing on electronic devices.
A generation ago
Now let’s talk about our parents. Our parents often say that they spent a lot of time outdoors. But they forget to mention that even they watched TV, but maybe not as much as us. This doesn’t mean that the next time you get busted for watching too much TV you should say, “Hey! It’s not fair, you guys watched TV when you were young too.”
Remember, they had to study a lot as well. At that time, competition in studies was not a priority like it is today.
These days, we sit on the couch with the TV remote in our hands as we have such a wide variety of choices. But, back then, they had a maximum of six channels and they had no remote.
During this time, there was more education for girls when compared to our grandparents time.
Books were a popular form of entertainment. So, many things changed in this time, shaping the world we live in today. Schools also improved.
Some of the popular games of this time include gilli-danda, chor -police and cricket.
Now
Right now we can barely make it to class on time. We take our teachers for granted and we never turn in our projects on time. We don’t show much consideration to our teachers, van drivers and support staff.
We are surrounded by electronic devices and books are almost forgotten. We stay online a lot and most times forget about our family. Family time is when we as a family get to do something together.
Electronic devices have many disadvantages. Our eyes get spoilt, and it kills our creativity. We don’t realise what is happening around us and tend to forget stuff.
The writer was guest editor, a class VIII student from Deens Academy Bengaluru, Karnataka
