As always, I called my mother around 6.30 in the evening. By 6.30 she would have lit the lamps and finished her prayers and would call me to chit chat. But today, she did not want to speak to me. She was distracted, and I could hear TV in full volume in the background. She shouted, “It’s Makara vilakku, we are watching, call me later”. And without even waiting for my response, she hung up the phone. After my initial irritation settled down I wondered what this deal is all about. Why such frenzy? It’s just TV. I decided to check YouTube and looked up Makara Vilakku 2018. And there it was! The reason behind the frenzy. Lakhs and lakhs of people attentively waiting for a glance of the sacred fire that can been seen once every year, during this day. Without realizing it I too got hooked on to the screen. Sitting in Bangalore, playing AR Rahman in the background, I could feel the strength of hope emanating from the people patiently waiting at the Sabarimala Temple. In the se
"My kid is wasting time scribbling drawings on a piece of paper... he'd be better off practicing a few theorems, with exams round the corner" .... "I wish he didn't over smudge that yellow color - he could have won the first prize in drawing competition instead of second place today!" These are two extreme cases of how parents handle creativity. On the one hand, we find parents increasingly emphasizing on the need for academics and how anything else is perceived to be wasting time. On the other, we have a set of parents who want to see their kids on top of everything that they do, ahead of everyone who do that work. There are also those who take the middle path - but that again is filled with parents who are indifferent - "I don't have the time"... "Just put my kid in a hobby center and forget about it"... "Just give her the iPad and let her play video games... I am busy and don't have time to involve her" Competit