No more dreams of butterflies

Today's children have no time to enjoy their childhood:

by Samangie Wettimuny

You may yearn for the sight of 'those' beautiful flowers in sleep, but you no longer see them. Fairies no longer come your way to take you to the fairy world, to leave wonderful gifts under your pillow, to see whether you are naughty or good... But those fairies never grow old.. those flowers never wither.... They are ever willing to beautify the world of children if they get the chance.

Just as George Eliot states in her "Mill on the Floss" We could never have loved the earth so well if we had no childhood in it." So we look back nostalgically to those beautiful days and wonder why we do not see the beautiful flower garden which we used to see - where little birds sing, butterflies fly and cute bunnies hop no longer when we close our eyes.
"Well, now I close my eyes to see John Abraham" said my friend as we left the cinema hall after watching "Water". "You wanna me to think of anyone else other than Tom Cruise? " asked another friend talking of " Mission Impossible III". "I am not surprised that I no longer see that beautiful flower garden because I always think of Angelina Jolie." said my male colleague.

Well, 'the stars' enter the scene a bit later. Nowadays it is Pre school home work that makes the first replacement to those flowers and fairies. When the child's mind is filled with them, the fairies do not come his/her way. He then closes his eyes to see his teacher's reaction- if found that the naughty student had not done his homework.

He has no time to see whether the fairies have left him any gift the following morning as he has to rush to his pre-school!

The child may then want to see the fairy the next day.. but fails as the poor thing is too busy. Then what about the following day? Well, the fellow is busier.. The day they yearn for, will never arrive.

However as the days pass you may never get the need to see them in your sleep, as you get to know that those childhood heroes are not so powerful in a world that eternally runs after 'super' power!

One's life may get complicated as the years pass by , but the memories of his/her childhood will be with them forever. In the famous novel "Apu Sansar" by Vibuthibhusahna Bandopadya, the protagonist, Apoorwa returns to his home in the village after several years.

His childhood was spent in extreme penury, but among caring people and great natural beauty. In his childhood he had heard of a goddess who had the miraculous power of gifting you with the things you wish.

"If that Goddess ever appeared before me now" thinks Apurwa "I'll ask her to give back my childhood which was spent among these trees and valleys." Though spent in extreme poverty he really enjoyed his childhood and that is why he preferes it than his present life as a considerably well-off writer.

"Nowadays children do not have time to enjoy their childhood" we have often heard our elders say, but no one is bothered to correct the system. "You can often see grandmothers dragging their grandchildren to pre-schools (of course under the instructions of their parents) saying that "Ape kale nam mehema naha." (during our days it was not like this).

But I did not allow my daughter to admit her son to a pre-school till he is five" said a retired school teacher who genuinely worries about the present day children who are deprived of their childhood.

As many people believe the things that are being taught in pre schools make little minds complicated. "They do not have time to live in their imaginary world at least till they start schooling." So can we expect them to find time to see beautiful flowers as they close their eyes or to check whether fairies have left any gifts for them under their pillows?

William Wordsworth in " To a butterfly" says

"Sweet childish days that were as long, as twenty days are now "

But one may wonder whether these lines are applicable to the present day kids whose childhood is just complicated as their adolescence, youth or old age?

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