Where have our Children gone?
Where have our children gone,
I hope not taken away by the Pied Piper?
Where have the children gone, who climbed
Trees, made merry in the playground, broke
Window panes, and chased squirrels!
Where have our children gone, who
Played hop-scotch, and climbed trees, boys
And girls who screamed at the top of their voices,
Chasing each other around the corner till
They crashed into you!
Where have our children gone -
The playgrounds are deserted with few
Old men and women sitting quietly, speaking in
Whispers of politics and remedies. Slides, swings
Merry-go-rounds, sit forlorn and listless!
Where have our children gone,
Who talked nonsense and sang silly songs?
They talk, now, only of serious matters that make you
Wonder if you have missed something in school or
College. Perhaps we are all to blame for this!
In place of empty playgrounds
We only see flickering screens that have closed
Upon the children trapping them worse than the
Closed walls that Pied Piper had taken them
Through from the city of Hamlyn!
That is where all our children have gone to,
A nether world of flickering screens and static,
Far, far away, from times when you could scold
Them with a smile, or perhaps, even join them
In their games till you muscles ached!
Where have the children gone,
That made cynics to smile and despots relent?
A world without children has become a world of war
And strife, where despots and bigots, statesmen
And fanatics wreak wild havoc on the world!
Flickering screens can never replace
Playgrounds, children should never outgrow childhood
Before its time! Alas, that we have made them so opinionated
Making ourselves look like children even as they behave like
Adults-a role reversal like never before!
All the conflict taking place in the world,
Intolerance towards each other, the polarization taking
Place in the world is because we have lost the child in ourselves!
We once played with each other irrespective of religion, caste or
Community, but now glare at each other with suspicion.
Where have our children gone?
Alas we have taught them to behave like adults before
Their time. We have exposed them to flickering screens as surrogate
Guardians because we don't have time for them. How can we
Abdicate our responsibilities before our children?
We are scared of falling in the playground and
Being called childish before 'grown ups'! We have snuffed
Out the child in us because we have an image to build. We have
Given our children flickering screens as pacifiers, surrogates
Even as we abdicate our responsibilities as adults!
Unfortunately, the playground are
Deserted and we have lost our children to
Flickering screens while we work through pay hikes,
A better standard of living and build up an image even as
The child in us languishes, lonely and forlorn!
Something more vindictive than
The Pied Piper has taken the children away,
Robbing the playgrounds of their rightful denizens.
We look helplessly as childhood becomes a thing of the past!
I wonder if we'll build monuments for childhood soon!
Totally agree with you... beautifully written sir
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