Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Nursery Crimes

The stress of joblessness, the effort in laziness and the weight of an empty wallet… so many times I yearn for something to take me back to the good ol’ days… of nothingness, of no worries… of nursery school! I don’t remember how my classroom looked, which fellow kids I kicked and which bullies made me cry… I don’t remember what I finger-painted, which stories I loved, nothing! But that was the best part about nursery school, wasn’t it? There was nothing we needed to remember.

Except the nursery rhymes, of course… our introduction to another 20 years of learning lessons by heart! Learning nursery rhymes and narrating them countless times at school and then at home and occasionally to entertain guests on weekends, meant that our young brains were programmed to learn historic dates, chemical formulae, mathematical equations and Dr Ambedkar’s life history in our future years. And yet, I stutter and stammer, trying hard to recollect the lines, when occasionally I have nothing better to do.

So when my 3-year old niece visits, my family’s favourite way to spend time is to make her speak and nowadays, narrate rhymes. And what rhyme to start with, rather than “Twinkle Twinkle..” So last week, my niece started in her squeaky little voice…

“Twinkle, twinkle traffic light,
Round the corner shining bright.
Red means stop,
Green means go,
Yellow means go, but slow!
Twinkle, twinkle traffic light,
Round the corner shining bright.”

Whatever happened to little stars shining like diamonds in the sky! Whatever happened to the tiny spark that brightens up the night! Whatever happened to imagination, nature and fantasy? Shockingly, my niece has never heard of the original. And most of her rhymes are now New and Improved! No hot cross buns, no ring of roses, no Jack and no Jill! The 21st century rhymes are here! And they are depressing..

If not now, when else would kids learn to let their minds roam free? Why curb creativity when they are 3? Rhymes about traffic lights? They probably would have stuff about paying their taxes next! One way to look at this would be that, it is probably to ensure good traffic sense in the next generation. But that’s a long shot… and such “reality show” versions of nursery rhymes are definitely not worth it!

Soon the same rhyme may go…

“Twinkle, twinkle traffic light
At every corner, a useless sight!
Red means honk,
Yellow means go!
Green, errrm.. we really don’t know!
Twinkle, twinkle traffic light
At every corner, a useless sight!”

New age rhymes, buh!

11 comments:

Unknown said...

such “reality show” versions of nursery rhymes are definitely not worth it!.......... ROTFL.....

keep writing ... u simply rock... i suggest u start writing those funny poem separately ,... makes business sense ... ahem ... :D:D

Nikhil Menon said...

u got an awesome blog sis..keep rocking!!

the nursery rhyme thingy is awesome so are the ones on chennai and the WALL..

but..,u cud do away with this word verification thingy...

Jade said...

Whoa.. Seriously? But why would they do that? How idiotic!

SuperMus said...

Karthik - thank you! what would i do without jobless readers like you?! game for a joint venture?

Nikhil Menon - shall take your advice. and thanks for reading!

Jasmine - you haven't heard all the stuff yet!

Arun Sundar said...

But do traffic lights twinkle at all?? poor kids, they are being deceived :)

Anonymous said...

hmm...u sound all nostalgic and OLD in this post! :P

- anonymous, non-mysterious, good looking guy

Nikhil Menon said...

72% ain't bad at all i guess...

So..wen can we expect the next post??its been sumtym now...busy with work eh??:-)

FreaKo said...

You have the knack to pick up logic or should I say common sense....

Good post gurl!!! And I liked the french connection post too... I am a martyr of trying to learn the language... Gave up with out a fight.

The best part of your blog? Its updated.... periodically... well almost :)

Nikhil Menon said...

Well..
I am pursuing my Engineering studies at NIT Calicut,running into my third year now...

how about ya???

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Frugan E said...

This was great to readd