Force fed creativity

In our studying days, there were no summer camps, special vacation classes, reading sessions. During our summer vacations we used to study, play on our own at our home, or go to our grand-parents and listen to folk tales and Epic stories. We used to spend some time in gardening, watching Jungle Book (Mowgli) on Sundays on Doordarshan. We used to borrow books from the Government library and read interesting stories. We used to read comics like Motu-Patlu, Chandamama, Champak. This is how we passed our time and do it with ease without any tension. We passed our holidays happily spending time with family, grandparents, massi, mama, bua.

                                          Now we see that there is a trend of summer camps. They teach painting, drawing, cooking, drama. In some camps, they teach about Robotics also charge a hefty amount for these. So sometimes I feel this is a generation gap why our kids are different than we were as kids. This method to attain the goals is materialistic. Ours was more relaxed, grounded, connected with family and stimulating experience. Nothing was imposed on us and we were not doing something because the neighbor's kid was doing it. We did not need to go to a specific institute/school to listen to stories, our grand mama used to tell us stories routinely at night time.

Our kids are living in an age where every one has to follow the trend and do things as a mandate rather than a choice.