Killing the competitive spirits of the kids
Published July 28, 2008 | Kerala has always been a fertile land for all competitive events and reality shows that are conducted to spot the latent talents in the kids. However, the pushy malayalee parents try to stretch the limits of their wards in their attempt to bring out the best out of them. ‘Yuvajanotsavam’, which is an annual cultural event, conducted in both school and college levels to spot the talents is one such occasion.
Competitions in various events are conducted and parents would go all out to ensure the winner’s title for their children by hook, line or sinker! Some would bribe the judging panel; others might sue the winners citing silly reasons while the rest cook up the issue of biased valuation before the press. Whatever be their secret formula, the ultimate aim of all parents would be to ensure their child a berth among the winners.
Children would be made to toil from dawn to dusk who hop from guitar classes to folk dance practice and then to percussion instruments class before winding up the day at the Kathakali maestro’s house in the dead of the night. Amidst all these packed schedules, the hapless child also should juggle his studies and assignments, which makes it a truly Herculean task for a child of 10 or 12 years.
On the D -day, the event would be recorded in both movie and still cameras and during the next few days this CD would be played and replayed non stop in almost all the homes of their relatives and friends’. Each and every move of the child would be closely scrutinized and the family panel would draw their own conclusions on the possible reasons of his failure to make sure that during the next event, these flaws are well managed!
By the end of all these high voltage actions and melodrama, the child in all probability would have become a bundle of nerves, with all his interests and instincts drained off. May be malayalee parents should go by the axiom’ Live and let live’ while forcing these hapless kids into the limelight.