Infancy without freedom , a time of torture.-Do you agree with this? I some how do not.

Infancy without  freedom , a time of torture.-Do you agree  with this? I some how do not.

Rewritten with by

P.R.Ramachander

(I read   the original  written by Rajkumar S  in Tamil(Facebook post by  Rajagopal Srinivasan) . AS a parent I was shocked. Being from very poor background  many parents  do make  their children work very hard  so that they will become rich. Would it lead   to this state of affairs? I do not know)

I am a    counsellor  as well as social worker,

And one day    an old couple came   and told me,

“Sir , we have a son in  USA  ,  who  never speaks  to us,

He rarely comes to visit  us  for ten days  , lives with us for five days

And he  e speaks to us   for five hours during that time    and goes back.”

I told them that  I would contact their son by e-mail,

And I did and told him  the complaint  of his old parents,

Surprisingly   he did   write   a reply  by e mail ,

And explained   to me , why  that happened.

“I lived in a small  city in India   where I was born,

And I do not have   any pleasant  memory of that city,

Nor do I have a  pleasant memory  of life  with my parents,

Nor good recollection  of  the  prison like   educational  institutions  that I studied”

“Right from the age  of three , the only  words  that ,

I heard from my parents was  “Study,do not neglect,

Study more” and all  the time till  I  was in school,

Morning to  night my father  coached me  and made me study.”

“Though I   wanted to play   with friends  , tell jokes,

Watch TV , my parents  never allowed me to do any of those ,

And all that  I remember  of my parents   and my home,

Is the torture   called   study   always and always.”

“They enrolled  me in a very   costly  private school,

Who made  things more worse  by making me study in class,

And giving so much home work , that  apart from  father’s coaching,

I did not have   any time   whatsoever   except   school works.”

“I never   had any holidays   throughout the year  ,

As I was made to study by my parents , by my teachers,

By  masters  of coaching classes and  I  did develop,

A hatred  to my life  which was  a punishment  and not joy,”

“I some times spend,  some time  for recollecting   ,

Joyful or even sad incidents   of those   times,

When life  was a  rigourous  imprisonment  to me.

But never could   recollect   any incident  of joy or even sorrow,

And later  I studied as  a day scholar  in a college  the same state of misery.”

“When I came to USA   i suddenly realized   that ,

That human life  is not all imprisonment but joy,

I travelled., talked with friends, read novels ,  watched movies,

Watched TV shows and so on   and  really enjoyed my life.”

My recollection of my native city is as  a city of pain,

My recollection of my parents  is as torturing task masters ,

I do realize that I have the duty to look after my  parents,

And I am prepared   to send money , employ people etc for that.”

Even  when I go home  , I am not able to talk  more than,

Thirty  minutes with my parents as their world and mine are different  ,

And my city appears   as strange  and my parents appear to be   strangers,

And I am sorry that  I can do nothing about it , please allow me to relax.”

As a counsellor  I forwarded that letter   to the boys’ parents ,

They were greatly shocked as they were not able to understand him,

And they felt they have sacrificed   all their life and earnings for him,

And  i felt that  there is something  in  what the boy told.