Everything, except the rule ‘everything changes’ changes. Last day, I was riding through an emerging Indian city. On the way I saw a hoarding outside a School Compound which read, ‘No home works, no tuition’. Then … then … what business will be going on inside? Do they mean no books and no teachers too? I asked myself again and again. “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” That is what William Butler Yeats, once said. Could he be the patron of this School? I thought. However, I felt my consciousness murmuring ‘Cool down man….you are yet to hear more of the same’. May be everything part of an emerging culture, I thought. I knew that overloading children with homework and tuition are forbidden in some advanced countries. I found myself unable to accept it for I still could not forget a Dad in USA finding it hard to get a space for communicating with his daughter, who every time was found busy on her mobile. What that disturbs me are the possible accompanying damages that follow. In those practical countries, where food means junk, shelter means a concrete box and dress means something transparent, things are not as pleasant as we envision. They are not going to continue long without ‘love parlours’ on every nook and corner, which sell loving words for cash. Essentials in human life have already been forcefully replaced across the world … yes, replaced with TV, Internet and Smart phone. There is perfect order everywhere as we see the world. Carlos Fuentes said, “Perfect order is the forerunner of perfect horror.” How meaningful his comment is!
According to psychologists, the major cause of divorce by 2018 will be the smart phone. That is, our future is going to be a paradise of parentless children. Already friends and family members turn so close and yet so far at a time. The smart phone today is not dissimilar to opium in the last century. It kills off our communication skills, and poisons our hearts and souls. You don’t have to wonder any more why so many young people don’t read, can’t spell or write decently and are often inarticulate. Thanks to TV, evening home prayers have disappeared. Thanks to computer, a family never sits together for the dinner. Now, people cannot think about a city without Wi-Fi. Thanks to internet, books and teachers also are disappearing, so are values and our capacity to love. A 24 hours power cut may end up psychologically killing many. Is humanity advancing or slowly perishing?
Joseph Mattappally
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