If I could put the clock back...

Of all the joys that can brighten the suffering earth, what joy is welcomed like a new-born child? When I look back on my childhood I cannot help smiling and remember the good times we had. I remember my father singing along with the harmonium, all his favourite K.L.Saigal songs and my uncles would also join him soon after dinner. The song session would go on till late at night and the womenfolk of the house would sometimes join with them, serving them cups of tea. This would mostly occur during the week-ends. Sometimes it would take the rounds on Antakshari and we children would prompt our team just because we wanted to win, even if it was for fun. Dad's favourite song was,"Soja Rajkumari, Sojaa... sung by K.L.Saigal and I would eventually go into a deep slumber. Singing was a passion in our family. I do miss Mumbai a lot. That was one place where I really enjoyed my freedom. We often had family picnics where we could go for long drives, without the fear of any terrorist attacking us or even the fear of getting mugged like it is today, anywhere in India. I do miss the beautiful evenings in the rain getting drenched in the famous Juhu Beach, and at the same time eating Bhel puri, or Vada-Paav and then ending it with coconut water. As a child we enjoyed domestic happiness and bliss in our homes. It was my mother who took great pains to keep all of us happy, even though we had our ups and downs in our day-to-day lives. "A hundred men may make an encampment, but it takes a woman to make a home." A person is the happiest, be he a monarch or a simple peasant, who can find peace in his home. My mother would keep reminding us about the essentials for keeping the home warm and loving, which she terms it as six components that are requisite to create a "Happy Home." Integrity must be the architect, and tidiness the upholsterer. The warmth should come from affection, which can be lighted up with cheerfulness; and members in the family must be the ventilator, renewing the atmosphere and bringing in fresh salubrity day by day; while over all, as a protecting canopy and glory, nothing will suffice except the blessings of God. I slowly graduated into maidenhood. I remember all of us being a set of blushing beauties of a modest maid. I was a child no more; a maiden now; a graceful maiden, with a gentle brow, and a cheek tinged lightly, and a dove-like eye; and I could feel all the hearts blessing me, as I passed by. I was a bit more on the reserved side. Yet, in school we were academically head-strong and serious about what we wanted in our studies. Once the school time was over we were back to our usual pranks. I would keep humming the song from"Boot Polish - Nanne Munne bacche tere mutti mein kya hai", on my way back from school and it was a chorus from my peers. I miss my youth a lot. Compared to today's world, I find that children of this generation hardly have anytime to spend their childhood without racing. They hardly have any free time as there is so much of competition all around us. I believe that if a young man is loose in his principles and habits; if he lives without plan and without any object in life, spending his time in idleness and pleasure, there is more hope of a fool than of him. Every period of life has its peculiar temptations and dangers. But youth is the time when we are the most likely to be ensnared. This, pre-eminently, is the forming, fixing period, the spring season of disposition and habit; and it is during this season, more than any other, that the character assumes its permanent shape and color, and the young are wont to take their course for time and for eternity. I love the acquaintance of young people because, in the first place, I do not like to think myself growing old. In the second place, young acquaintances must last longest, if they do last; and then the young ones always have more virtue than the older folks; they have more generous sentiments in every respect. What could be more charming than a young boy before he has begun to cultivate his intellect? He is good to look at; he gives himself no airs; he understands the meaning of art and literature instinctively; he goes about enjoying his life and making other people also enjoy theirs. True liberty consists only in the power of doing what we ought to will, and in not being constrained to do what we ought not to will. In my consideration, Personal liberty is the paramount essential to human dignity and human happiness. There is so much good in the worst of all of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it becomes necessary for all of us not to talk about the rest of us. In today's youth I find that eighty per cent of our criminals come from unsympathetic homes. It is indeed a sad thing to say.