Today, Shyam sent this in the mail. As Children's Day approaches, I thought it worthwhile to post this here.
For those born in the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s....
Hi,
this mail is for all of us ..Meena Periamma to Chandra...and i guess it applies to all of us.
First, we survived being born to mothers who had no full time maids/cooked food/cleaned the house while they carried us.
They took aspirin, ate salt, thenga yennai, cheese , sweet dishes and didn't get tested
for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints. They bought us choppu which was painted bright. We ate them, licked them.....
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking .
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. We sat in the front seat, back seat, on laps, and cars had no child locks.
Riding in the back of a local bus/train was a special treat.
We drank water from the tap and NOT from a bottle. At schools, at friends houses, at hotels, at municipal taps .....
We spent hours on the terrace under bright sunlight flying our kites, without worrying about the UV effect which never ever effect us. We were told not to disturb other "parents' in the afternoons, but we could whatever else.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.
We ate pastries, white bread and real butter and drank soft drinks
with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because..... .WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. Or mom had to tell us she is going to the market.
No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K. Oh girls above the age of 13 were safe EVEN without cell phones. Come on most of our houses did not have phones.
We would spend hours reparing our out dated bicycle (hired) out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem .
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms....... .! .WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
We slept with our parents, grandparents, on the floor, on the paai, on the jamakalam, ..in wedding halls, - well none of us had our "own" rooms. We were once in a while told this was our "room" but any guest could use it. Without worrying about leaving the toilet wet.
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. Some of us even stapled our fingers to see how a stapler works.
We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
We were never given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, we made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them from outside the gate! And we did not call to ask whether this was a good time to come. We ate what their mothers gave without having to check with our mothers.
Cricket League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who
didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law! Dammit! they would have called the law, if the police missed us...
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!
The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO
DEAL WITH IT ALL!
And YOU are one of them!
CONGRATULATIONS!
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