Stolen childhood

One wonders what today's children will be nostalgic about. To be nostalgic, one must have association of memory with so many things that have either captured their imagination, pleased them with sights and sounds all around. In cities and towns, their interaction with Nature is so awfully limited and they have to be always on the run that they do not have the leisure to pause and ponder.
Their little spare time is spent mostly on video games either on computer or smart phone. So engrossed are they in such games or social networking that they consider that their lives revolve around those activities. This they are bound to do because they are under heavy academic pressure allowing them hardly any scope for outdoor sports, cultural pursuits or any such activities to help develop their physical and mental wellbeing.
True, they cannot be asked get back to the days of Opu where the flute made from mango stone (amer atir vepu) or clay dolls will prove to be a world of their own. They have no childhood quite simple and innocent -one that does not push them into parental custody for anything and everything. If a boy has never known how a couple of doves nest and the eggs lie there with both parents hatching those by turn, his education from Nature remains incomplete.
The National Geographic, the Animal Planet and the Discovery channels present in details the life cycles of insects, birds and animals from every corner of the world. If a child is eager to know, s/he can definitely have more accurate information about many species on the planet. Yet to see a flock of birds on their flight in the open sky against many shades forming the background or a herd of otters swimming and diving so energetically from close range is an experience of lifetime.
Hills, hillocks, gorges, forests, meadows, glades, pastures, rice fields and medows, rivers, rivulets, lakes, haors (large swamps) where thousands of migratory birds flock in the winter are open books from which anyone can lean if one has the knack for it. If children visit such places, their cursory glance will help grow their interest, which is just skin-deep. But when the love affair begins to grow, it becomes a lifelong passion. So enduring is the passion that one cannot but feel an irresistible urge to be close to such sites. An insight grows within unaware. This cannot be obtained through visualisation of the most authentic and attractive portrayal of such wealth of Nature by camera lenses.
It is a pity that urban children are deprived of many such gifts of Nature. The system of education has been so unforgiving and repressive that children are forced to grow up in an unnatural manner. Their childhood -the most enjoyable and highly formative period of life -has been stolen from them courtesy of a relentlessly cruel system. Children of wealthy families at least have the luxury of visiting tourist attractions either at home or abroad once or twice a year. But for the majority of school children, this is beyond imagination.
School excursions are also fraught with risks in a country where everywhere is awfully crowded. But still there is a need for children to see for themselves their country. But since money is a problem, arrangement of such visits is challenging. But where there is a will, there is a way too. The education ministry can create a fund for this purpose. If the ministry contributes and schools also raise a fund locally, such educational excursion can be made possible.
Rabindranath Tagore was denied many things affluent families are used to lavish their children upon. But then his father took him to visit to the hills in the north along with him. That single visit was such a landmark that it left an indelible impression on the impressionable mind of young Rabi. His transformation within was great and the budding poet and lyricist could capture human place in the wide universe. Today's children need to know firsthand what the inner theme of the universe is.