The normal playground for kids of today is within the boundaries of colony, which is hardly (1/10)th the size of "our" typical playground, perhaps due to crunch of open space everywhere, especially inside residential colonies. Most of the space in such colonies is dedicated to construction work. Also, the boundaries of such "grounds" are no more the boundaries of the park (else every shot would be a boundary !!), but some arbit car (distinguished only by colour by kids eg, green color car or the red one) or a building which is mostly referred to as (almost) being owned by one of the players (eg, meri building / teri building etc :P :P). Further, the heights of buildings and their "encroachment" on the lawns ensure that the kids have to think twice b4 throwing a ball high up in the air, else it might land in someone's home :D :D. Almost similar changes could be seen in other sports like football etc.
I was recently studying the book: "You are Born to Blossom" by Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, wherein he describes almost every aspect of an ideal education system. He also talks about the vision of Shri Rabindra Nath Tagore abt education and its realization (The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes our life in harmony with all existence, from "A Poet's School"). I was left wondering, with so much crunch for open space, is the vision of Sri Rabindra Nath Tagore even practical now, who dreamt of imparting education to kids in close vicinity of Mother Nature. Are today's "centers of education" even slightly heading in that direction? Amidst all the bombardments in classes with all the technical stuffs and minute details, are we providing a kid with an opportunity/platform to express Self, which in my opinion, shud be the sole aim of education? I guess sometimes, we tend to forget that its inherent in a kid to be happy and "cheerfully irresponsible", I find kids enjoying much more than adults on hilly slopes, rivers or beaches and other natural places !!
Reflecting a bit more on this change in times, I started thinking of various other changes that have come in and around us in the last couple of yrs; and apart from the obvious and much publicized changes in Nature (i mean, global warming, pollution even in villages and hills, etc [shud not be very difficult for my friends to guess y this thought came first :P :P]), the next thing that came to my mind (may be, due to the video I saw a few days back), was the work-life balance thing. I can only describe the video as "one nice Masterpiece" and as the presenter Mr Nigel Marsh rightly says towards the end, "its time that success of an individual not be measured by the amount of money one has when one dies, but by how meaningfully one lived the best years of one's life" is indeed an idea worth spreading.
