Has Summer Vacation lost its charm...?

By Prakash Katapadi
Bellevision Media Network

Udupi, 13 June 2010: Observing the lack of summer activities among the school and college going students in recent years, especially in the rural areas, one is forced to think whether summer vacation has lost its charm and significance. During the foregone years one could witness the young children swimming in rivers and village ponds, climbing the mango and cashew trees and playing in the courtyards of the village temples and houses with friends. This has just remained a memory of the bygone summer vacations.

Since recent years it has been observed that children do not like to roam in the wilderness, either on the hills or forests exploring new plants and picking up wild fruits, neither they are interested in playing in muddy fields and be with the nature. Most of the time during the summer vacations, the children have been usually found either in front of the computers playing games or surfing on internet or watching their favourite cartoon network on televisions or talking endlessly to their friends on mobile phones. In this age of electronic gadgets, the children and youth do not find time to be with their grandparents. The fun and frolic that the village children used to enjoy and the practical lessons that they used to learn from the elders have become things of the past.

As the world has been changing, the lifestyle of human beings has been undergoing a tremendous change. In modern times, the summer vacations have lost their original charm. It is worth noting that there are no longer the kind of old grandmothers who used to narrate stories from the epics and puranas to their grandchildren to keep them entertained with sprinkle of moral and ethical messages. The modern age grandmothers are more interested in watching their favourite serials on television or doing their own things. On the other hand children are no longer interested in interacting with the elderly people as their interests clash.

The modern single or nuclear families living in flats in cities and towns live their own private lives within the four walls of their flats with minimum interaction with their neighbours. This is a kind of punishment for the children as they find themselves confined to their own flats with their parents being busy in earning their livelihood.

For the children of this age, education is increasingly becoming a burden. In this age of competition, children hardly find any time for play or proper food. Moreover, the children also have lost interest in extra-curricular activities due to the pressure of studies. They have to attend their own school and thereafter or before the school are required to go to coaching classes and also do the homework of both the school and the coaching classes. This system of education and competition has been exerting a lot of pressure and anxiety on the students.

Thus, after the annual examination, in order to release the pressure from the students and regain interest and enthusiasm in their next academic year’s studies it is important that the children should make the maximum use of their two months long summer vacation in a meaningful way. They can play various games with their friends, explore the nature in the surrounding areas and learn practical lessons which will enable them to have a balanced life in future.