29/03/2026
We hear younger people suffering from Dementia, Alzheimer’s , Diabetes and heart attack. There are many reports in medical journals and newspapers.
In today’s (29 May 26) Times of India there is one more article at
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/80-indians-cleared-by-tests-are-struck-by-heart-attack/amp_articleshow/129873498.cms
Why is it happening ? In my younger days we rarely spent time in our house. We used to play - be it cricket on the street or kicking a football, or badminton in the park or basketball in the school or even kho- kho or kabaddi! We enjoyed playing marbles which made us get up and sit down hundred times .
We did not have sports facilities . Railway stadium in New Delhi was perhaps the only place to go for athletics practice. That was the 60s. Our cricketers did not wear helmets until Nari Contractor got hit very seriously on his head.!Now adays we see our cricketers wearing their armoury from head to toe- helmet- hand gloves, arm guards, thigh pads, abdomen guard, pads for protecting shin and feet etc! They look as if they are getting into a battle. Even the Bull tamer in Spanish bull ring enters only with a red cloth!
Parents spend lot of money making their children learn tennis, swimming, badminton. I see children going to school busier than we were at their age. Get up at 6 am, get ready and go to bus stop at 7 am, attend school until 4 PM , come back home by 5 Pam, get ready for one of the sports coaching or dance classes, come home by 7 pm, do home work, eat dinner, shower and hit the sack. They hardly play games and most of them who cannot hire coach, are playing with mobile phones!
We loved to read. Our parents bought us so many books and made us read. Today the children rarely read Their general knowledge levels are poor. Their interest in history and geography are almost non existent. Communication with parents are very less and parents are unable to speak to their own children.
My father bought books and insisted that I read. Books like “ Lady Chatterly’s Lover” books of Alberto Moravio were bought by my father and made me read when I was in Ckass 9 or 10.
He never said, “ no” for purchasing sports equipment. He taught me World War II corrected my weekly letters that I sent when I was in National Defence Academy, noted the chapter in Wren and Martin Grammar Book and made me do the exercises given in each chapter. I hated it those days but thank him for that today. We could argue on so many subjects. I read four newspapers, Time and Newsweek, Illustrated Weekly, Tamil magazines like Vikatan, Kumudam, Kalki and Kalaimagal in my school days.
I do not see parents having discussions on history, geography, modern Indian history or wars that we fought, our independence etc. it is either TB or mobile phones we all are glued into!
Was my growing up days better than what it is today? Let us debate!
India News: NEW DELHI: He had no red flags. No “high-risk” tag. By standard medical calculators, he was not the kind of patient doctors worry about. Then came th.
