Karan hates to go out and play, he thinks it's a waste of time. Since the summer holidays are on, his dad has shifted the computer from his office to home, so that Karan can play games and not get bored.

Playing out in the hot sun, climbing trees, plucking mangoes, building castles of mud, just whiling away time with friends...returning home only after your mom has called you the 99th time, these things don't take place any more. Summer holidays are not to be wasted. You have to join half a dozen classes - swimming, badminton, computers, music, dancing...

Manali, who is just six, has no time to play or read. Reason? She has computer classes and dance classes in the morning, after which she has to watch some of her favourite serials. Evening she has swimming and badminton classes. Where is the time for anything else? You casually ask her if she has heard of the Red Riding Hood tale, and there is a question mark written large on her face - Who's that? When we were kids (cliche, but true) we knew almost all the fairy tales by heart - "What big eyes you have grandma"? (Red Riding Hood) "Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all"? (Snow White). Kids today don't even seem to be interested in reading.

They think it's a big waste of time to read stories with boring morals, so do parents. Why should they waste their time reading something that in no way is going to shape their future. Anything and everything that kids do today, they have to keep in mind their future, that they are living in a very competitive world and if they waste their precious time, they won't get anywhere.

Today a 10-year-old becomes a celebrity. He is called as a judge for some contests running on TV, six and eight year old girls and boys are interviewed, and asked questions like - do you have a boyfriend or what are your future plans. For God's sake, let these children grow up naturally. Let them be. Ofcourse childhood is the foundation on which the future is built, but does that mean you give up the simple pleasures of growing up.

Will the future generation even know how simple games like tipri, hopscotch, seven tiles are played? Will they know the story of the Selfish Giant, Snow White or Red riding Hood? Who will tell them? Who will have the time to tell them? You are lucky if you have a grandma staying with you. Once in a while you could probably listen to stories and lullabies.

You can be a celebrity at 10, 20, 40. But you cannot have your childhood again.