“Mummy, you are early today?” It was 7th grader Neeza smiling at Serah when she completed her work for that day and closed her laptop at 10 O’ clock. In fact whatever Neeza asked was true. 

“For how many days I am working hard? Not getting enough time for anything!!” Serah thought in her mind. 

The busy life of an IT professional with lots of meetings, project deadlines, work pressure etc made Serah exhausted for that day. 5th grader Rohan was already happily jumping as his mom is back from her busy activities. Even though she is not getting enough time to talk to them about daily things that happened in school, she used to listen to the kids whenever it’s possible. But most of the time, they would forget before they can tell their mother. Since her husband was abroad she was having a tight time handling the kids, household work and official work.

Rohan used to tell Serah: “Mom, I just googled and found that if we sit for a long time then our lifespan will get reduced to half” Serah just sighed and didn’t reply to that. These days kids are like us only! if they need to know about something they will google about it. Some days back Rohan have some assignment from school for writing an essay about Global Warming. Serah promised him that she will help him to write about that and encouraged him to start writing by his own. But before she completes her work for that day, Rohan completed it by googling that topic. Serah’s mind went back to the olden days when she used to do a lot of research in the library if some assignments were given. The joy of reading books is now very distant to kids these days and they are getting everything on their finger tips. They are not reading or researching for a school activity as they are getting all the details in fraction of seconds. So they does not have patience.

Yesterday from School Neeza came sadly. “What happened?” Serah asked her. 

“Abigail was crying continuously in class today as she is not the class topper this time. She was scared to go home as her parents will scold her. She was angry on me as well because I’m the topper this time”. Neeza told.

Constant comparison to other kids and being exposed to higher expectations must have brought depression on Abigail. The sudden change in her best friend’s behaviour made Neeza also sad. Being a teenager now she is becoming more emotional these days. Serah thought in her mind.

“What happened to this generation kids and parents? They are more competitive but they hate their best friend if they studied a little more than them? Also for small things they became more stressed out and they are not able to control themselves!” Serah remembered about her school days in which her best friend was the class topper and she was happy for her. I think there is seriously some problems with kids these days. Don’t they have the compassion and happiness for seeing others success… a heart which is happy seeing others happiness.. a heart which is sad seeing others misfortune… a heart which is compassionate to others which will make this world beautiful for sure.

The news about war in Gaza was being telecasted in TV. Neeza and Rohan were surprised to see the number of people getting killed and was asking multiple questions about war to their mom. She was confused about current global situations which made her speechless. She remembered her childhood when everything was paceful. Now its a daily habit for them to be exposed to such kinds of news. If kids are growing up without any humanity, mercy, love, hope in this world then what’s the use? Serah thought very sadly. 

“Are they killing innocent people in war? Are they killing children too?” Lots and lots of questions came from Neeza and Rohan that night. 

Rohan told that few friends in class were talking about current religious problems which is going on and all the aspects around them. Few kids were supporting that in class which made Serah really worried. Rohan asked few doubts about that to Serah but she couldn’t reply correctly as religious intolerance is everywhere now.

Finally Serah told them how to be kind and humble always so that they can change the world. Atlast they went to sleep. But the doubts from her kids haunted Serah’s mind in the night and she couldn’t sleep well. What if my kids become cold hearted and won’t show mercy to anyone? What if they become self centric and won’t consider any body else’s opinion in life? Also Im not getting quality time to spend with them which might cause loneliness to them!!!

On the next day Serah woke up with a heavy heart from her sleep. She slowly opened the window and gazed at the mulberry trees in their garden. It was raining yesterday night continuously. There is morning dew and it was so cold. A cool breeze passed her. They went to Church in the morning and the priest was delivering a sermon. The topic was about to pray for the people of Gaza. Serah looked at Neeza and Rohan and they were listening to the priest keenly. Suddenly a small bird flew from outside and sat on the roof of the Church. “Mom, look there is a bird!!” Rohan told. Serah told him to keep quiet. But alas! It flew towards the fan and in a second that poor thing fell on the ground. Neeza and Rohan ran to take care of the bird. Serah saw compassion in their eyes. They gave the bird water and wanted to take it home. Serah agreed and the kids became so happy. She had a positive feeling in her mind that there is still hope for a better world…