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Scene
1: Ranchi bus stand. A young boy of age 15, is
sitting inside a bus waiting for it to start.
The conductor outside is calling passengers. He
yells names of some places "Bero, Bharno, Sisai,
Gumla..". An adolescent vendor gets into the bus
with a pile of books. He approaches the boy. "Akbar-Birbal,
Hatimtai, Vikram-Vetal? babu?" "Take this book
to improve your General Knowledge, do you know
the woman who has 56 sons and 38 daughters?
sir?". The boy is looking outside the window,
the vendor gets desperate. He takes a thin book
from the bottom of the pile, covered in a yellow
plastic sheet and shows that to him, "boss?".
The boy frowns, a grimace on his face. Strategy
failed, the vendor moves to the next passenger.
Scene 2: Hatia-Gorakhpur Maurya Express. Ranchi
station. The train is packed with students going
to Muzaffarpur to appear in the Combined
Engineering Entrance Test. Other passengers have
cancelled their tickets seeing the crowd of
'students'. The train starts, the boys form
groups. A compartment is full of smoke. One
veteran student takes a book out, covered in a
yellow plastic sheet. A young boy of age 17,
takes the lead. He starts reading the stories in
that book, with gestures and expressions. Soon
everyone in the compartment surrounds him,
listening with full devotion. He becomes the
star of the group. He then cracks few precocious
jokes, and wins the applause. This brings the
shyness out of others, each followed with a joke
of his own.
Scene 3: A small town of Sheikhpura. A young man
of age 23 is watching TV till 1 AM. He cannot
see MTV while others are awake. He has kept it
mute. Who wants to listen? This song has nothing
worth seeing. He switches the channel. Hey,
wait! What was that? His heart starts pounding,
he can listen his own heartbeat, it's getting
difficult to breathe, he senses an attack of
nausea. A porn movie is being telecast on a
cable connection, by the cable operator. He had
heard about porn telecast on cable from his
friends in other places too, but never
experienced it himself. He starts thinking, what
if some day his family watches a movie till late
night, and someone inadvertently switches the
channel to this one? Should he complain to the
police? But the police line also gets cable
connection from the same guy and his friends had
told him that some policemen at night duty
themselves asked the cable operator to play such
movies in their places. Who can he trust? Should
he ask his family to cut the cable connection?
But what reason will he tell to them? He
switches the TV off, but cannot sleep that
night.
Scene 4: An internet browsing center at
Ghantaghar chowk, Bhagalpur. A young man of age
24, enters. His father goes to a 'paan' shop
nearby to order a 'paan'. The young man has to
send an e-mail to a company, about his job
appointment. There are 6 computers, like a
computer center lab, no cabins, full
transparency. Two guys of an age younger to him
are laughing in an adjacent cubicle(?). They are
watching porn on internet. The young man can see
his father coming inside the browsing center. He
prays to God. Please, do something! Sometimes,
miracles do happen. There was a power cut, not a
miracle for the localities, though. The UPS
could not take the load of 6 computers and all
of them switched off. His father asked him if he
could send the e-mail. He said, "Yes, Let's go".
He lied.
Scene 5: A young man of age 28, is writing this
article here. He wants to know where are we
going with satellite TV channels and internet?
Who can we trust in this world of hidden
cameras, cell phones with a camera and MMS? What
can we do to save our next generation from
falling into this abysmal swamp of filth? I am
not talking about a particular child or family
or society, it is about the whole populace, from
Bangalore to Barauni. How long can we restrict
our children from getting exposure to the
'dirty' world? Will more frankness with your
child be of help without affecting the culture
and tradition? Will it affect the respect that
you would expect from your kids? What should be
the ideal age of a child to educate him/her on
these subjects? Should schools/colleges have a
compulsory class on moral values? Should the
society arrange for seminars on such
psychological topics which the children are
asked to attend? Will forcing them to attend
such classes/seminars not increase their
propensity rather? Will it not be boring for
them, some may revolt also? Are we ready to do
something yet? Please suggest.
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Comments: |
Filth
is more accessible to young people
now than ever before. That is the
flip side of technology. Parents
have to be friendly and frank with
their kids and find ways of talking
about these new threats. As per my
observation, the kids indulging in
activities listed by the author are
from families of the following
categories :
-
Families where parents have no
time for their kids
-
Families where parents do not
understand the problem and their
own role in it.
-
Families where parents are from
very conservative back grounds and
talking about birds and bees with
kids is unthinkable.
-
Families where the elders have
been living promiscuous lives and
have set an example for the kids.
-
Kids from such families are either
too curious about this hitherto
forbidden aspect of life or take
such activity as normal part of
growing up.
The
point remains that kids have to
learn about it and so healthy,
scientific avenues have to be
provided by schools. After a lot of
debate, finally Indian schools have
taken initiative in this direction.
Parents have to find ways of talking
to their kids and they have to keep
their kids away from scummy kids and
unsupervised access to TV or the
internet, at least in the school
going years. By the time kids finish
school they will learn what is right
and what is wrong. They will be more
prepared to fend for themselves in
this big bad world. - Raj - Jan.
23, 2006
Mr
Raj, the young boy/man in my article
is no one but me, myself. And I did
not stay with my parent after the
age of 14. Everyone loves and
respects his/her parents. And if
there is just one thing for which I
can thank God, then that will be my
parent. I would not have gotten
spoilt had I stayed with them. In
the most trying times in life,
whenever I feel weak, I remember my
parents, and that gives me the
strength to be on the right path.
Please do not reply even if this was
a case of misunderstanding.
Though I agree with the points
mentioned in your reply, but as you
can see in my own example, the blame
is not just on family. - Kumod
Jha - Jan. 23, 2006
Come on! I can' t believe it. I
wrote articles on trivial topics,
which got so many comments, and now
that I have raised a serious issue,
there is just one comment. Is it
because I gave my own case? Forget
about me, for people like me, there
is a song "Jo thokar na khaye, nahi
jeet uski, jo gir ke sambhal jaye,
hai jeet uski". I was fortunate to
have two elder brothers and an elder
cousin in my family who were frank
enough with me in my childhood. And
that was pre-cable and pre-internet
era. When I completed my school
education, speaking slang was sin
for me. But then I went to a hostel
and was ragged on the first day. And
soon I found, that most of the
students in my college talked things
which were self-prohibited to me
then. I soon was a loner. It was the
urge to become popular with friends
which changed me. And then came
cable TV followed by internet. And
of course, the hormonal changes.
Some time back, I went to a
colleague's house, we were watching
TV. A bold scene came, and my
colleague's 7-8 year old kid grabbed
the remote and changed the channel.
I noticed this pattern for some
time. This is just one example. The
new generation kids are so exposed
to these matters these days that
when you try talking to them about
bees and birds, they will tell you
some fact which you, yourself will
be ignorant of. You think this is an
exaggeration? Just look around.
Watch the kids' behaviour pattern,
particularly those studying in good
schools. Ask someone who is studying
in one of the premier institutions
where they have access to computers
and internet. Most of them were
ignorant till they came there. Ask
students living in the hostels,
those groups traveling in trains to
write exams. Ask young fellows of
small towns who have cable
connection. Then you will realise
the gravity of the problem.
I have been to many premier
institutes of India, whom I would
not name here. And if I compare what
I saw there with the examples given
in this article, then this will just
be the tip of the iceberg. Compared
to them, I was a 'sadhu'. May be,
compared to me, you all are 'sadhus',
and so you do not see the danger.
I am not trying to scare you, but
take some action before it is too
late. Those who think these are just
isolated cases of families, where
parents do not take enough care of
the children, or are not frank with
them, they are taking this issue
very lightly. I can tell for sure,
they do not have a teenager kid.
Wait till you have one. These days
most of the couples have just one or
two kids, and our work schedule does
not give enough time to spend time
with them.
We just can't afford to ignore this
issue. Please respond. Forget my
case. You must be seeing many cases
around yourself. I am talking about
the next 'Y' generation. - Kumod
Jha - Jan. 24, 2006
I am female in my late 20s and have
a sibling who is a young teenager. I
can understand your concern
regarding the advancement of
technology and the adverse effects
it has on our younger generations.
Not forgetting that it encourages
the mentally imbalanced adults who
use the internet to lure young
teenagers and it eventually leads to
all kind of horrible things one can
ever imagine. Whenever I read the
news and discover troubles arising
due to such factors my heart beats
faster and I feel scared for my own
sibling.
I personally think that there is
nothing wrong with the technological
advancement. I would love to see
Bihar or any other poor
state/country advance in the
communication sector. After all we
are no longer in the dark ages and I
would like to see my town or village
experience the advancement. It will
bring an overall change in our
society.
Coming back to your point, i think
what you are saying is that OUR WAY
of using these great inventions is
the problem. I feel that marketers
of clothes, cosmetics, movies,
videos, magazines, book sellers and
musicians are misusing the
technology. They use almost naked
females to advertise their products,
lately even the musicians have
decided to discard their clothes on
the screen in order to SELL their
albums to make money. Likewise all
Hindi movies where the actresses are
barely covered! when we analyse our
environment these so called "dirty"
things are continuously bombarded in
front of our eyes everyday. I
believe as adults we have the
ability to FILTER this and ignore it
but young teenagers can't do that
because their minds are like dry
sponges, ready to absorb anything
that comes across them. ALL young
males are curious about the female
anatomy ( together with the physical
and mental changes that accompany to
the transition to adulthood) so
naturally they will want to know
about it (to make things worse it is
forbidden in the Asiatic culture so
even talk about it so it is the more
reason for them strive for it).
I believe that we need tough laws to
govern and manage our own inventions
specially the marketing sector where
ethics has to be applied. I believe
it is an emerging field of knowledge
but i hope all the marketers will
eventually realise that they are
making a profit at an expense of our
own future generations.
There are also certain software that
prevent children from accessing the
forbidden websites and lately the
cable/TV providers have come up with
"parental guidance system" where by
most of the late night x-rated
shows/TV channels are blocked using
a password that has been created by
the parents. The problem is that all
these facilities are available in
the first world countries and our
goal has should be that every TV
owner/computer owner around the
world should have access to these
facilities then only we can minimize
the problems.
Lastly, there has to be a good
communication between the parents
and their children as MR. Raj had
pointed out earlier. Definitely our
schools should be involved by
introducing a kind of social studies
in order to create an awareness in
the early teens. Our own inventions
are becoming our own dilemma! I
believe that we have to teach our
young generations to FILTER these
information. - Sunanda
Singh,Toronto, Canada - Jan.
27, 2006
Kumodji, I could not find words to
say, it is absolutely right. There
was a time when I was in India
living with my parents and it was
hard to watch tv when some vulgar
songs had started. Though my parents
do not watch movies, once in a while
they would just check on my sister
and me while we were watching. There
were times when I felt terribly
ashamed when some kind of songs or
movie scene were telecast at that
time. Everybody likes to hear
others' point but I was trying to
put myself in your place and
remembering the feeling from that
time for me. - S. M. Khurshid
Anwar, New York, USA - Jan. 28, 2006
It's a great experience to see a
young lady expressing her views on
this topic. I concur with her on her
comments.
Just by chance, I happened to see
the green letters on this article in
the index, or I would have missed
these comments. Thanks, Mr Anwar. I
understand that even those who did
not reply to this article, are
really concerned about this issue.
Thanks to everyone who read this
article. - Kumod Jha - Jan. 29,
2006 |
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