Tuesday 4 June 2013

A stitch in time saves Nine


This is a true testimony of what happens when you don’t take the warning signs seriously.

Avinash a teenager residing in a small town Bhagalpur in Bihar, was like any other boy of his age : enthusiastic, a keen observer of everything around him. His father had still not managed to win what the world calls ‘a successful career’. That said, the family still would be able to carve out a decent living. As a boy Avinash was quite brilliant in studies. He would often top his class in academics. Also he had a penchant for Sports, and would often participate and win accolades at his school and district level in various sport activities.

He was just on the brink of adolescence when his father flocked to the city of Dreams- Mumbai like so many other Indians in search of a remarkable turnaround in fortunes. A new city would bring new hopes to their simple and empovrished lives. For few days everything just felt like a dream in the boy’s healthy eyes.
However as he grew up, he started being more of a couch potato. He would sit and drool over long hours playing videogames, Watching Television as if his whole world existed in the Idiot Box.

He would watch it day and night, leaning, sleeping, sitting in all possible positions over his Drawing Room Sofa. He would watch Cartoons, Music, TV Soap Operas, just about anything. Slowly his time, which once used to be dedicated to sports, academics and his friends started being utilized in front of T.V.
The results showed up in some months. His grades dropped in studies, the constant abuse of his eyes and body to watch television not only made him grow flabby and lethargic, but also disrupted his eyesight to the extent that one fine day, he could not even see the Television screen properly.

This proved to be like a slap on the face for him. He had no clue waht had happened to his lovely eyesight, those which once could see the smallest of dots with precision. Parents advised him to visit an optician, who on checkup confirmed that the boy had indeed weakened his eyesight, and that he would have to wear spectacles. Just what Avinash feared and  hated had taken place. And not only that, his weight problem led to him contracting Diabetes and several weight – related ailments, and constant deterioration of vision.
By the age of 20, he became acutely blind and this led to a genuine hinderance in his academic performance and calibre and as a result of that, loss of confidence. He began to hate himself and grew up to be a highly insecure and low self- esteemed man.

Haven’t we encountered similar kinds of people sometime or the other in our lives? One of the most common things we ignore in our life is our own body, and our eyes are a very important element of it. A person can still go on without a limb, but loss of eyesight deprives him of the most precious and invaluable thing in the world- Nature’s Beauty. According to a recent survey, the number of people dependent on prescription spectacles and contact lenses  in our country has crossed 10 billion. And TV is the most common reason for it. Indeed the idiot box consumes most of our children’s time and mostly what they watch is useless stuff on TV. Arent there better alternatives to it? Of course there is a lot more to the practical life than just the 21 inch- TV set. Hence we need to avoid it as much as possible and help to keep our eyesight intact and healthy. And initiatives like the No TV day are doing the needful in bringing the change.

So please don’t ignore the warning signs. Neglect the Television, not your eyes.

This post has been written for The Moral if the Story is...! and Indiblogger

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