From Lost Stars to Sparkling Bright

Celebrating World Youth Day

- Smt. Sujatha Rao

Once upon a time, I was young. It was the time of daring dreams, foolish ideas, unbridled joy, unfathomable sorrow, racing pulse, slowing heartbeat, meandering mind, fancy fantasies, and, yes, of great physical energy levels.

When I think of those times, often a smile escapes my lips thinking about how silly and childish my thoughts were most of the time. From the present vantage point of my sixty plus years, I feel a great deal of that energy and time has simply withered away. If only I had the wisdom of the present day, I muse.

Then I look around me and find the teens and twenty-somethings with their heads buried deep into their mobile phones, frantically keying away messages or browsing through their social media handlers, either anxiously, or with a nonchalant look that I have come to identify as the 'social media look'. My spirits lift and sink at the same time immediately the former, as I realize I was way better off thanks to the missing mobile phones and social media in my youth; the latter as I feel sorry for the youngsters of the present day.