The lost Innocence

When was the last time you played a board game with your entire family ?When was the last time you held no grudge against anyone around you ?When was the last time you stepped out and didn’t care who is watching you, how you should behave, the etiquettes you are expected to follow?When was the last time you believed that the world is full of people who are good, who do good things and think good about everyone else ?

If I am living in the same world as you are, I believe that your response would be nothing shorter than maybe a decade back. Have you ever thought what has changed so drastically so soon that it has transformed the very perception of your surroundings? No prizes for guessing , it’s your innocence.

What’s innocence? In general when people talk about innocence the prime gaffe they commit is to relate it to childhood, considering it more as a synonym for childlike behaviour than as personality trait that it primarily is. So when I will be asking you to hold on to your innocence, I won’t be soliciting you to choose between childhood and adulthood, I would merely be requesting you to embrace and cling onto the values, ethics and believes you possessed as a child, into your adulthood.

Its all too easy to argue that it’s practically not possible to survive as a grown up in this cruel world and still hold on to that child-like innocence you once possessed. It’s also simpler and even tempting to some extent to grow up (leaving behind that innocence) as fast as possible because of the enticing liberties and freedom that comes with it. Adding insult to injury are the societal pressures…. how many times have you heard your elders crib about the fact that you haven’t grown up, the age old redundant dialogue of every parent “grow up kid….you are not a child anymore?” (“grown up” here does not signify growth in terms of physical appearance but it metaphorically implies the growth of one’s intellect, sub conscious thoughts and inner desires and temptations)

What I retort back with when faced with a similar situation is this ..

How many “so called” grown up people have you seen who are not encountering any issue in facing and combating with the situations of life after having given up on their innocence? We all have to eventually land up in the weird battle of life for which our innocence for sure might not be enough as a survival tool. But the fact remains that once we enter the battlefield, there’s no return route , no turning back .Innocence, like virginity can only be lost once. Hence unless it becomes indispensible, why let go of that sole entity that makes this world a decent enough place to live in, that assists us in living through the disappointments of realistic situations and circumstances.

Why not have that blissful countenance, that carefree attitude, that angel like charm? Why not live a fairytale life till we can afford do so... after all as a recent bollywood song says it correctly “dil toh bachha hai ji !! “.