By Yash Nishit Shah

Yash is the son of Jayshree and Nishit Anil Shah. The article is based on a speech he  presented at the 'Rising Stars' function organised by PSK in Mumbai.

A very good afternoon to one and all. My name is Yash and I am going to talk about parent child relationship. Like we all know parent child relationship is one of the most significant relationships. It crosses the bond of blood and emotions. In fact it can be called as a bond of souls. And it grows stronger as the time progresses. Although there are challenges, they only make this bond stronger and special.

While looking at today’s reality many of us would realise that this aspect of our life has developed certain cracks in it. We often hear complaints about the time “the family” spends together as “a family.” We also see children chasing their parents’ dreams and running into classes and tutions. There is a sincere request to all that please don’t push your children to run your race. Ii must say that most of us here are really lucky to have wonderful parents who taught us to be independent and gave us the freedom to be what we wanted to be. But when this freedom is not restricted it leads to complaints of lack of attention. The story explains the message

Aarav was in 2nd standard. His mom was a Doctor and his dad was a CA.

Both his parents loved him. Aarav hardly spent any time with his parents. But he still loved them. Because he always got what he asked for- the latest computer game, play station and even a cell phone. And that’s the reason why everyone in school looked up to him. They too thought that Aarav had the best parents in the world.

One day Aarav goes to school, the first period is English. After explaining the chapter the teacher points to Ravi and questions “Ravi can you tell me in one line what do you mean by parents?”

Ravi stood up and answered, “Ma’am parents are those who give birth to us. They love us inspite of all the mischief we do. They are angels sent by God.”

The whole class applauds.

The teacher then turns to Aarav and repeats the question

Aarav feels nervous.

He answers, “Ma’am parents are those who come home late at night and leave early in the morning and on Sundays they work on their laptops and fight with each other.”

The whole class burst into laughter.

The moral here is that more than anything, children need their parents at any point of their life. Its because what children can learn from their parents is impossible to get from any other source.  Nowadays we do see a trend where parents send their newborns to nursery to give them a headstart in their career. But what the child would learn from you is priceless as compared to saving an academic year.

This is just one aspect of today’s reality. What we as children should remember is that we have fortunate to have the love and support of our parents amongst all the other things they have given us. They have given us the most important thing – life. We should resolve to be with them throughout our lives. I would like to conclude with a little thinking exercise for everyone.

What would be of greater importance making the whole world happy or making your parents feel happy?