Being Winner...

This is an era of competition. No sooner a child is born than he finds himself competing with fellow children of his generation in every walk of life.

As parents become managers of this competition, it starts with enrolling the kids in a good school. When parents of children of our generation had an option of a Vernacular medium or an English Medium school, parents today choose a school from a wide variety of options starting from a State Board school to an International board school. Not to mention this selection of school largely depends upon the financial well being of the parents.

And as they start their schooling, parents starts conversating with their kids in English, it really doesn't matter to them about how adept they themselves are with this foreign languague. Good, bad or ugly, they talk to their kids in English only believing that more and more practice will make their kids well versed in English.

Well it doesn't stop here as going to a good school and talking in English are just the basic necessities. Parents want their kids to be all rounders. Being so, children are burdened up with additional load of a plethora of coaching from cricket to swimming, from painting to Karate and what not. When an all round development of kids is a need of the day, a closer look reveals that this desire for all round development comes from a mob mentality. "Since Mr. Sharma's son is a swimmer, I feel my son should be a swimmer too... Since Mrs. Gupta enrolled her daughter for a Karate training, I too followed the suit." Comparison begins.

With comparison there begins a race. And parents, they want their kid to be a winner, an absolute winner. Everyone wants to be a no.1 as a no.2 is actually good for nothing.

And when you are running a race, you either win or you lose. When winning gives you confidence, losing gives you complex. When complex shatters the self confidence, too much of winning gives rise to over confidence which ultimately makes way for Arrogance.

Coming to the scene...

As you happen to play with these kids from an age group of 5 to 12, you find this girl who is most probably the eldest of the lot. You approach her enquiring few details about her, she replies in a tone which is nothing but rude. You don't bother thinking She is just a kid. You move on enquiring about other kids and there too the eldest one pokes her nose, her rudeness crossing all her limits. Offended you go away from the scene.

As you seek information about this rude kid, you come to know that she happens to be an all round winner in whatever She does at Her school. But does her behaviour really reflect those qualities?

Dear Parents, please understand winning doesn't always come from being a numero uno. If you really want to make your kids winners then,

Teach them their mother toungue, English will be taken care by schools. Still you want them to excel in English, give them books thus cultivating in them a hobby of reading.

Teach them values and culture which are Indian.

Teach them how to respect their elders.

Teach them a lesson of equality.

Teach them benevolence.

Teach them that it's not always about winning and failures too are important in order to grow.

Teach them comparison not with others but with their own self.

Most importantly, teach them humanity and a winner will itself emerge out from this human.

#Dedicated to all Parents.