'TO KIDS WITH REGRET'

Follow us:WhatsappFacebookTwitterTelegram.cls-1{fill:#4d4d4d;}.cls-2{fill:#fff;}Google NewsDear Kids of MP,

Hello darlings. This is Mother Goose. U must be sorry to know that very soon you will not be reading my nursery rhymes in your schools anymore. I know how much you kids enjoy 'Jack n Jill' and 'Ding dong Bell.' Oh yes! How you love to sing 'Johnny Johnny Yes Papa' and open your little mouths wide in the end to say 'ha ha ha.' How you bend down to your feet when you prattle 'One Two buckle my shoe.' How your chorus 'Twinkle twinkle little star' and I see your eyes shine just like the 'diamond in the sky.' Yes my cherubs, I have seen all that. For all these years.

Alas, all this will be over soon. I am told that my songs are bad. They are alien. They are 'foreign'. They are 'English.' Leftovers of the colonial past. I am told 'Baa Baa black sheep' is racist. My rhymes supposedly take you away from the feelings of nationalism. From the emotion of being an Indian. They want change. Instead you will be taught poems and rhymes in Hindi.

Now that is really wonderful my dears. Rhymes, no matter what language, are always delightful. I am sure your Hindi songs are as sweet and melodious as my rhymes. They will be full of local flavours and national colours. Perhaps they will be as 'Indian' as they want them to be. But honestly, can't Hindi and English rhymes co-exist? Live together? There is space for both. I am sure you can learn both, bright kids as you all are. Why must one be replaced by another? I sincerely believe that rhymes are simply what they are - rhymes. They are neither English nor French or Hindi. They are simple heartfelt expressions of simple feelings and emotions. And feelings are universal. They have no language. No culture. How can one divide feelings? Label them? If you can have Pepsi and Versace, what is wrong with little English nursery rhymes, I say?

And I don't believe that rhymes can be a threat to a child's feelings of patriotism. Patriotism, my dears, is not such a weak virtue. It is a very powerful emotion. A very fundamental feeling. What harm can a harmless little rhyme possibly do to it? None if you ask me. The idea itself is absurd. Rhymes don't harm a child's mind. Songs and music can never divide hearts or corrupt minds. Indeed, nursery rhymes are the last things on earth to do such a thing. I have always known that songs and music bind people. Bind cultures. Bind nations. Transcend boundaries. And what change really are they talking about? What change do they want to bring about? It seems like change only for the sake of it. Nothing relevant about it, if you ask me. There are better ways of instilling nationalism in children, I am sure.

But maybe your leaders in MP know more than me. After all I am old, darlings. Maybe the world has changed. Maybe it is not what it used to be. I am old. Really old.

I am sorry this is happening.

Lots of love sweeties,

Mother Goose.





first published:June 19, 2006, 20:50 ISTlast updated:June 19, 2006, 20:50 IST
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