The Burden Bared

Skinny legs. Stooped shoulders...

the weight on the back being supported by equally skinny hands.

This is no baggage porter at the station.

It represents my 9 year old daughter on her journey to school everyday.

She has developed an almost permanent hunch back thanks to the weight she bears!

Did you know

Section 29 of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2010, provides that the weight of schoolbags must be reduced to ease the burden on students.

As the law sees it...
As per the Children's Schoolbag Act of 2006:
A schoolbag should not weigh over 10% of the body weight.
Nursery and kindergarten students should carry no schoolbag.
Schools should issue guidelines on bags.
The state government should provide appropriate lockers at schools.
Schools violating such provisions are liable to face a penalty of up to Rs3 lakh; a subsequent violation may lead to De-recognition.

...But the reality is
Children carry over 35% of their weight on their backs.
Even nursery and kindergarten students are not spared.
Schools don't have appropriate lockers.
They have no guidelines on bags.
No school violating the provisions has faced the music.

Studies show that carrying any more than a tenth of your body weight can cause spinal damage. Experts warn we are facing an epidemic of back problems in young adults when the long-term effects of this early damage starts to appear.

Yet school children carry more books than their young spines can bear.

The school very clearly mentions that no strollers are allowed.

I berated my daughter for carrying more books than her time table requires her to.

I check her bag.

She packs what is needed, not a book more, not  a book less.

When will schools and educationists wake up to the burden the children bear.

The burden starts with the carrying of a heavy load to school.

The peer pressure to score more.

The ambition to participate in academics, sports, music, elocution, spelling bees, quizzes and everything else that comes their way.

The need to win.

The need for recognition.

Over achiever or just normal school children?

In the end, what does matter?

The ½ make which made all the difference….

The crazy quotes which say “ nobody remembers who finished second but the guy who finished second”?

What can schools do?

Make sure subjects are such that all books need not be carried to school everyday

Provide a locker for children to keep their art work, drawing books, work books which “need to completed in class only”.

Given the technological developments and introduction of user-friendly budget tablets and e-readers, bag-free days may not be far.

Mine is bigger than yours!

 The year 1996

One of the questions I had to answer during my admission interviews for a MBA college was  "How do cell phones work"

 It was not the era of cell phones, they were a rare commodity.

Luckily for me, I had a friend who worked at one of the leading cell phone companies in New Delhi who had patiently explained the working to me, while talking to me over the cellphone only recently.

But, that used to be a big ,heavy, ugly box. It looked like a walkie talkie

Yet, they were a prized possession, only found in the hands of a privileged few.

My dad had one- a compact, highly expensive piece( we paid to receive calls as well)

But definitely was a boon to a frequent traveler.

Then came the boom!

Year 2000- money, freedom and free markets!!!

I bought my very own cell phone in Hyderabad.

It was a small Motorola handset with a  “rubber duck” antenna sticking out for better connectivity! The cuteness factor was extremely high!

The freedom that came with it was invaluable.

Very soon, I received a gift- not so nice looking, but amazing features those days- a Nokia

Highly durable and heavy, it could withstand all the falls it took. It could get drenched with me in the Mumbai monsoon and yet perform without even a slightest sniffle!

Constant companion of my calls between US and India.

But that is all I could do with a cell phone- call, receive calls, send a message to friends.

But it made life more easy in  a city like Mumbai where time and travel are always on the go.

I carried it around for a few years till I left the country, when I passed it on to my brother.

Being home bound in the US of A, I never used a cell phone.

Loved the Ericsson that my husband carried around.

A flip model!!  It was small, pocket friendly and had color!!!

Camera, who would have thought it possible in a phone!

We could take pictures on the go!

We could see it in color!

Year 2005, not only had I evolved over the years, so had the cellphone market in India.

We had choice, we had stores dedicated to selling cell phones. We had salesmen trying to explain features!

No more bulky phones, no more ugly phones,

Sleek, small, sexy- these were words used to describe phones.

Motorola had the slimmest phones which were the craze among men.

It was the pinnacle of cell phone evolution.

I bought my first Samsung- a clam-shell model, so compact, none would know I had it in my hand, I could take amazing pictures thanks to Samsung’s strength in the graphics domain AND play games!!

Preloaded with a whole lot of games to keep you occupied and out of trouble!

It was the era of style.

I paid more for that phone than I would have for 10 grams of gold!!!

The phone you carried  made a style statement.

You flaunted it! You placed it proudly on the table when you sat with company.

You took pictures whenever you could!

Had never heard of Bluetooth before- whoever revolutionized it was a genius.

No more carrying around cables- Bluetooth on, share pictures , update, load.

You could do so much more with just a tiny instrument.

No more just talking and messaging with it!

We all wanted more from our phones!

They became smarter, we could touch them, we danced to their tunes! and they were highly sensitive to falls and crashes! We took care of them, we protected them, spent a fortune on keeping them safe!

Very quickly my phone was being displaced as a symbol of style.

There were phones which could slide!! Phones which were better than a Mp3 player and then came iPhone!

That was the ultimate status symbol.

It said you were not just someone, you were the ONE. Having an iPhone became a source of pride.

A smartphone!

OS was no more restricted to laptops and desktops!

Android came with such fancy features as well!

So I caved in and got myself a touch phone, an object of pride!

I would not allow anyone to touch it, fearing scratches, falls and marks!

I lost track of the phones and technology available in the market,

I stopped purchasing a phone for its sexiness. I looked at durability, usability and purchasibility.

I could not compete with those who bought a phone as a status symbol anymore.

I understood my needs and usage and stuck to a “basic” model, with which I could check e-mails, chat on the go, talk, message and listen to the radio, record songs, watch videos, capture funny images while on the road. Navigate on the road, find places to eat, have coffee! The wow factor just kept increasing!

You could never get lost anymore!

And you could do it all, for so little!

But paid a heavy price at the end! I had to charge the phone everyday!  You couldn’t go far without your charger! This did not serve me long.

And the health risks you faced with all the radiation zooming across the skies.

The death of the sparrow has been a big loss for the sake of connectivity.

Road accidents and death due to distraction while driving became a major cause for concern in most developed countries.

Circa 2013

Not only do I have a cell phone, all 5 of us at home have one of our own . All Samsung! All compact! All Smart!

Manufacturers made sure the life of a phone did not last long and they brought in factors like lust, greed, EMI purchases.

They sold to man’s ultimate ego!

In a mere 17 years, mobile phones  have made the leap from just being the alternative to landlines to becoming a computer, GPS, radio and our lifeline to the Internet.

Today, the bigger the better.

You see everyone on the road carrying one. Fingers constantly playing on it.

And they flaunt it.

The auto driver, the vegetable vendor, the conductor, the couple walking together, talking on their phones, the college kid listening to songs on the way back home, folks at work at lunch time fiddling with phones instead of enjoying the company!

Who doesn’t own one? A day without a phone, makes you agitated and fidgety!

Growing up, we watched movies and television serials, where they  predicted robots would rule our lives and walk the world!

It is happening. In the form of cell phones.

From “good things come in small packages”, we have progressed to “mine is bigger than yours”!