I Am Disturbed...

Sooraj Dooba Hai Yaroo, 
Do Ghoot Nashe Ke Maaro, 
Khud Ko Bhoola Do Yaaro,
Sansaar Se..

Chaar Botal Vodka, 
Kaam Mera Roz Ka, 
Na Koi Mujhko Roke, 
Na Kisi Ne Toka

Al-co-ho-lic... 

What is this trend that is emerging and is about to consume my child? He is just 7 years old and just knows the words in the lyrics of these songs. Soon he would start asking what does that mean and I wouldn't be surprised if asks for those things. How am I supposed to answer that? He is already concerned that I do not like he singing or listening to the song "Sooraj Dooba Hai Yaroo". He keeps asking me why shouldn't he listen or sing that song. I, at times, feel I am being over critical. But my values do not allow me to idolize alcohol. Some people, may be many of them, might be okay with their kids having alcohol at whatever stage of their life. I am not. But these kinds of songs make it difficult for any parent who wants to safeguard their child's interest, until they are grown up enough to make their choices. As a parent, I am fully aware that after certain age, it would be best to leave it to the children, but until then it is my responsibility to make him aware of what is good and what is not. 

The external influences like these songs are playing a crucial role in the upbringing of the kids. I have never made any effort to introduce these songs to him, instead Meghana and I have been consciously introducing him to melodious and well meaning songs. However, Mrunmay gets introduced to these songs somewhere outside. May it be his school bus, or other kids in the school or at the day care. He wants to listen to these songs and obviously has questions on the meaning of the words in that. And there starts my problem. I can obviously tell him the literal meaning of the words and hope he wouldn't have further questions. I am not sure how would I answer question like - Baba - will you bring a bottle of vodka for me? or Baba - will you give me "do ghooT nashe ke"?

I am happy he hasn't asked me that yet, but I am afraid that it may not be that distant in future. I am disturbed, deeply...

We have never introduced Mrunmay to the concept of girls need to wear a specific kinds of clothes. He sees a song on the screen "Mere Desi Look Pe" which has girls dancing in short clothes and when he asks me - "doesn't she have any shame?", I got disturbed. My attempt to tell him that it has nothing to do with shame or anything and she is wearing clothes fitting her dance goes futile. Someone has already inscribed on his mind that girls shouldn't be wearing short clothes. And he is just seven.

I am not exactly sure how should I protect my son from these external influences, so that he becomes a gentleman and a good citizen when he grows up. I am disturbed...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What is "B A Y"?

Weekend time. I was playing with Mrunmay, one of his games - 3 letter words. Basically there are some paper strips having one letter printed on it and then there's a letter dispenser, which dispenses 2 letters at a time. The game is to make up a word with those two letters and one of the paper strips. It's too early for Mrunmay to know the spellings and obviously the job of finding out matching spellings was with me. After every round, I was telling him the meaning of the word formed, in the form of question / answers. Like "Do you know this word?", "Do you know it's meaning?" and wherever required giving him examples and/or translations. After few rounds, the dispenser gave us two letters: "B" and "A". The only possible combination left was the word "BAY". I started asking him the meaning... Me: "Do you know what is BAY?" Mrunmay: "Bay??" Me: "Yeah.. do you know what is the meaning of Bay?&q
Read more

Subscription Services

Image
As the internet penetration increased over the last 2 decades, it also gave rise to digital subscriptions. The internet users slowly started developing trust in internet-based payments and that too on recurring payments. It probably started with the tech community using the recurring payment systems and slowly spreading that faith to non-tech-savvy users. There was also a phase when I started using the credit card for online transactions but wasn't comfortable storing the card details with the merchant. I used to enter the details every single time. (That is how I still remember the CC number that was in use at that time) In the late 2000's I was introduced to Ecom website development and since then it has been part of my professional as well as personal life. Over the years, I learned about the  PCI-DSS standard , and the extent to which the Ecom companies make an effort to protect consumer data. There have been instances of a data breach across the globe, but alon
Read more

Music Musings

Image
Songs have a huge role in our life. In childhood, the primary source of songs was Radio. It slowly expanded to TV, then dedicated music channels. Somewhere in between or in parallel to Radio and Television, there existed the parallel world of Cassettes (and then later CDs) which served the audience. Since then, we have evolved to on-demand, yet unlimited songs. Each of these phases has/had some peculiarities of its own.  When I was a regular listener of the radio, there was only a handful of channels - probably two or three. One channel was primarily for music where Hindi songs were dominant and the other was for general. I think they were named “ विविधभारती ”, “आकाशवाणी अ” and  “आकाशवाणी ब” etc. The beauty of the songs on the radio channel was the surprise element - you could get to listen to a song of your liking which would lift your mood automatically.  The television channels, specifically those dedicated to music stole the limelight that radio was enjoying. However, in the initia
Read more