Watch 'em

The Day after Diwali, our mail stood at our door in the morning and started crying. She said that her boy had lost his arm while bursting firecrackers the previous day. He had lost his arm and there was nothing that the Doctors could do about it. I was shocked on seeing her at my door instead of being in the hospital and then some sense prevailed and we managed to give her some money and then she left.

Thereafter I and saurabh were just discussing on how a freak accident cost the boy his arm and a fair shot at life. He blamed the parents for having not taken care of the boy. But I didn't agree with him. These kids are brought up in a different environment from people like us. We all had privileged upbringing with parents spending enough time with us, and taking care of us. But that is not the case with these families. There is constant pressure on them. The mother is either working in some house as a maid full day or comes back home to cook more food and complete the household chores. She rarely gets any time when she is not busy. Same is the case with the men. Most of them are working most of the times and are outside the house.

In such an environment, its really difficult to keep a constant tab on your children. They usually roam about the streets, loiter around with friends and in general waste their time. the parents do not have the education to know that their kids needs to be taught something more than what they might be learning in the government school. They would be too hard pressed making two ends meet, to pay attention to supposedly ‘minor’ details like ‘child upbringing’. So how would they be able to take care of the boy when he is bursting some fire cracker in some corner of the street?
At the same time, how a child turns out to be in her/his behavior pattern, has a lot to do with what the child experiences every day at home. That’s true, I agree. Children copy and model their behavior on how the adults surrounding them behave. But still, I somehow find it hard to blame the parents for their kids going wrong.

What would I have done if I were faced with poverty, meager income, work pressures and bickering family members? I would also busy myself doing things to keep my family alive, rather than see what my kid is watching or doing in the streets. No, it just doesn’t sink in… I cannot blame the maid and call her as careless. She had more things to worry about at that point of time. She didn’t know that her kid would end up like this while playing… …. Am still confused…