Kids on a freeway...

A Story by Kajal Gulabani

Last week a kinky urge of staying fit as a fiddle struck me. A morning walk it should be, I confirmed with myself. Walking is an easy-peasy job for me but waking up at a 5am alarm bell is a long row to hoe(sobs)!
Well, I somehow won over the alarm clock and started my fitness regime. Amidst an over joyous chit chat with the lush greens and perched cuckoos, a gang of over noisy boys caught my glimpse. Charged up in their sports shoes and tracks, they looked future models of the nation. Albeit, they were there more for early morning munching than an actual 'walk- walk'. What appalled me was their tender age. They were hardly ten year olds ! How did this very thought of huddling up for a fitness storm even blow their heads?Today's children they are, I convinced myself with this. They are way ahead than us, indeed.
I don't even have to go an extra mile to check this out. My 9 year old daughter is a 24*7 ticking reminder for me. She wants to wear what I choose for myself, apes the way I carry my handbag, blushes to herself in front of the mirror, is incomplete without her deo and sanatizer, brushes her hair may be nth time every single day till she is happy about it and WHAT NOT !!!
Have you ever eavesdropped when these peppy Girlies and macho boys talk to each other? I suggest you all should, at least once. You will end up in an outburst of laughs and exclamations, rest assured. I am so confident about it because I did that once (a genuine confession). My daughter's friend called her up and their conversation swooned me off almost.
Hello!
Heyy Hiii..
You know I am thinking of a get together at my place with pool fun too.
Wow! I will come for sure but let's not call the boys.
Yes, they behave smarter than us but they are not.
I had managed to hear just this much and I felt I have hit the ceiling.
They know the tug of war between the girls and the guys!! Already! When we didn't even know what a 'get together' was all about!
They know the games on lappy, the I -pad funda, cameras in mobile and the long list of glamorous stars. Where have the traditions of 'Gudiya ki shaadi' and 'ghar ghar' vanished?
Their dramatic personal and mental growth is on a roll and just like Italian has taken over punjabi, similarly, our kids have taken over us. At times I wonder, how our parents must have tried to unravel the same entangled big bang theory of time when we were kids??