MAY we not miss the reality of the silent invasion on the minds of our youngsters via the digital route. Among the themes that are fed into their unsuspecting minds and innocents heads, one is that India of the past was a land of snake-charmers and cheap magicians. Another nuance of that ugly feeding is that the Indian society was largely dominated by ignorance and unscientific beliefs that have kept the country backward through times. An extension of this is that Indians knew no science and the western world taught India what science was. This is, of course, a dangerous propaganda to which our youngsters fall easy preys. No matter the so-called new National Edu-cation Policy (NEP), the details of the material fed into young minds in schools -- and also in colleges -- is so crass that it should never, never be fed to anybody. There, of course, is much lip service to the cause of ancient Indian Knowle-dge Systems (IKS). But all that talk is so hollow at the school levels that the children are blissfully unaware of the highly advanced society India boasted through thousands of years of its long civilisational journey.

 

So, getting exposed to a terribly unjust narrative, our kids remain under wrong influences through their school and college years. How to protect them from those undue, unjust and undesirable influences? And, friends, add to this narrative another digital feed that assails the core sense of morality of the Indian society -- the sanskaars. Through that narrative, one of the ideas fed into young heads is that marriage is an obsolete institution. In the parallel -- as this ugly narrative goes -- ‘live in’ is the best option. Choose a partner just because you like her -- or his -- hair-style, and start a live-in relationship. If some time later you happen to stop liking the person for whatever reason, just get out. So, live-in is the better of the two options -- proper marriage and ‘live-in. For, in the first one, you get bound for life. In the second one, you have the freedom to choose or reject at will. Yes my dear friends, this is a reality of the ugly digital propaganda -- which is also bolstered through various movies on different platforms including OTT (where there is no censorship of any kind). So, everything and anything passes as a good theme -- in the name of ‘artistic freedom’ a director or writer or actor has. This freedom allows one to distort anything -- history, divinity, culture, and after all truth. Young minds are known to get influenced by all that narrative that has entered our mobile phones, our drawing rooms and our heads and hearts before we even realised its diabolical ill-effects.

 

How to protect our youngsters from all this ? One of the best ways to counter such a dirty diction is to engage our younger generations in creative, smart advice that does not in the least resemble pontification. The method and manner should never, never, never, never be of offering of advise. That is a strict ‘no-no’. But what is best is to engage the youngsters in conversation in which they are given immense respect and sense of equal-ness. May the youngster be drawn into conversations that seek to open them up for thinking in a free-wheeling manner -- with no restrictions on subject or the protocol. No matter if a youngster happens to call his father a ‘bloody fool’ in the heated flow of a discussion. For, he actually does not mean to say that, but is only following the style of conversation he is used to having with his peers and friends. So, it is all right if he says some words that threaten certain familial protocol but let him keep speaking. That is where lies the success of this engagement. Here, the loud-thinker remembers having read about a conversation a United States’ President was having at dinner table in the White House -- of course with his family: Wife, children a couple of other elders. In the heat of discussion, the President’s son said angrily, ‘Daddy, you are a bloody fool’. Immediately, Mrs. President -- the First Lady -- pounced upon the son -- ‘No, you cannot say this to your Dad. Say “sorry” to him’. The boy refused. Then the President intervened. What he said is all important for every parent to remember -- not for the exact details, but for the approach a parent may take.

 

The President said, in effect, ‘If the youngster is talking to the President of the United States, he has every right to call the President ‘bloody fool’, like any other citizen. And if he is talking to his father, then he is the only one who can say anything he wished to say.’ What a maturity, what an accommodation! This is the least expected from every parent today as he or she establishes a deeper and finer connect with the youngsters in the family. This connect will create a protective shield around the child’s sensitive mind and keep him or her safe from undue influences all the time targeting his or her unsuspecting and innocent (and at times, even stupid) mind. There is much more to add on this count -- which will have to wait for the subsequent editions of ‘Loud Thinking’. (To be continued) (Readers’ response to the issue is welcome)