A near-utopia where gadgets are anathema - II'''''
| Date :11-Oct-2020 |
By vijay Phanshikar :
IT WAS one’s good fortune to get to know about yet another family that does not have a television set at home. And the family does not miss it since it has chosen to keep the contraption away and out. By any standard, it is a truly happy family where two children are absolutely wonderfully engaged in their studies plus hobbies in a well drawn-up daily schedule that leaves them enough time for each item on the list to be completed without rush, without hassles, without blaming anybody else and without anybody to blame them.
The family is up around 4 in the morning, and is back in the bed at 10 in the evening. And the best part is that no one in the family of parents, two kids and grand-parents is ever tense or rushed or upset or angry or anxious about anything. But this is only a partial description of this family (whose identifying details have been concealed for reasons of privacy). The father is a celebrated academic and the mother a home-maker. The two kids seem to have ingrained in their personalities the seriousness of academic pursuits but follow their hobbies with unusual zeal.
The elder boy plays the tabla with aplomb, and the younger one keeps himself engaged in dressing up like saints and delivering kirtans and speeches of great personages like Swami Vivekananda and Swatantryaveer Savarkar. At school, too, both of them are good performers and have lots of friends. Yes, they do have a laptop at home, which is allowed to be used only for essential assignments. But none of the kids has a mobile phone, and there is no cribbing about that. The kids appear absolutely happy without the gadget. For, the family literally has thousands of books which everybody in the family of six reads. Kids are kids, after all, and they do have their demands.
Once, the younger boy refused to use the bicycle that his elder brother also used. The boy said, in effect, that he was tired of using his big brother’s “second hand” things. The family understood his expectation and bought him a brand new bicycle that made the boy extremely happy. But mostly, the kids are a happy twosome and satisfied with whatever they have. And this may be credited to the spiritually-enriched atmosphere in the family where daily worship and religious rituals are an integral part of the schedule. Plus, there are also regular visits to the temple and enthusiastic participation in programmes there by the kids. The temple schedule is not missed even during the exam-time, a family elder explains. Very rarely do we come across such families!