A Princess Remembers and The Little Emperors - Essay Example

 A Princess Remembers and The Little Emperors Introduction: From time immemorial population has always been a nagging problem and as such means different things to different nations. For some it may be a boon and for others it may be a bane. But all said and done, dealing with a country’s population is definitely no laughing matter. It is easier to build or enhance a country’s population than trying to cut it down. In ancient times, couples were encouraged to have more and more children, with some of them having families of 15 to 20 children. Rearing such a big family did not pose any problem at all because there was a lot of space, lots of food to eat, the cost of living was very low and there was no compulsion that every child should attend school. But drastically in contrast to this scenario is one that we are facing today. “Overpopulation”! The very word conjures up a nightmare of thoughts such as overcrowding, high cost of upbringing and many such related problems. We are going to highlight the contrasts of some of the very significant expectations for children by comparing two relevant stories – “A Princess Remembers” and “The Little Emperor’s”. The first story “A Princess Remembers” is taken from the autobiography of Gayatri Devi, the daughter of the Maharajah of Cooch, Behar and the princess of Baroda. Gayatri gives us a beautiful but vivid account of her childhood laying emphasis not only on the interesting background of her family but more importantly on the codes of conduct she experienced and followed during her childhood and highlighted the conduct that was expected of them as children. Since Gayatri was from a royal family, she enjoyed all the trappings of the rich and the famous, what with being waited on, hand and foot by handmaids, servants and butlers. But, nonetheless, they were never spoiled and in fact a lot was expected of them. In opposite contrast to such behavior, the children portrayed in “The Little Emperors”, written quite graphically by Daniela Deane was more shocking than striking. She deftly handles the glaring consequences of over population in the world’s most populous country – China with its 1.16 billion people and because of this, most of China is buckled under the “one child policy” program. Daniela says that it is rather sad and disappointing to see the expectations of Chinese parents for their children. She quotes Dr. Ni Guichen, director of endocrinology saying –“Because parents can have only one child, the families take extra good care of that one child, which means feeding him too much”. (Dr. Ni Guichen, “The Little Emperors”.) It is therefore rather heart rending to see small children hardly able to walk or play and enjoy life. All they do is sit in front of the Television and keep eating anything and everything. Speaking of learning in “A Princess Remembers”, Gayatri fondly remembers that the children were never forced to do things; on the contrary, they were taught everything with a lot of love and care and the children reciprocated because they automatically loved and respected everything and everyone around them. Though they were given so much freedom as kids, they were never allowed to overstep the threshold of traditions, customs and behavior. The children were expected to learn to behave properly, take interest in the culinary skills, respect everyone around them; even the servants, wait for their turn to speak or greet anyone in a traditional Indian way by joining the palms together and holding it against their chest with a “Namaskar”. Right in contrast to what Gayatri says is what Daniela Deane has to say about the “Little Emperors” - She says that many of the children in China are not sent to school because they are so obese and if they are sent, the children suffer from tremendous psychological problems because other children make fun and ridicule them. Obesity is one of China’s major problems and they are trying hard to battle with it by conducting special courses and programs for weight reduction. Parents are also counseled as to how to bring up their children and have higher expectations for them in life. It has become the priority of the government to pry into personal and private matters of a couple by keeping track of the pregnancy of the woman. The 13 years of enforcing the “one child policy” has left its deep scars on Chinese society. Couples are not allowed to get a second child. If they do they have to pay huge sums of money to the government. If they are unable to pay, they have to abort the child. “Abortion has become a way of life in China” (Daniela Deane, “The Little Emperors”) and as one doctor says that they do more abortions than deliveries. The present generation of children in China, is not only obese, but is spoilt, lazy, selfish and self- centered and most un-cooperative. The parents are unable to teach them how to behave for fear of being shouted at by them. Chinese parents do have very high expectations of their “one and only bao bei “treasured object”, (Daniela Deane, “The Little Emperors) but what is the use when the right steps towards achieving it is not taken care of? In “A Princess remembers” Gayatri tells us that elders advised the children and they expected the children to respect and follow the advice. Once when it was time to go to bed, she went to wish her grandfather who was playing billiards. He too wished her and told her to have a good nights’ sleep to which she replied that she had to make a note of all that happened that day. Her grandfather then advised her, “If you go to bed, you should sleep. If you are reading, you should read. If you are eating, you should eat. And if you are thinking, then you should think. Never mix the different activities. No good ever comes of it and what’s more, you can’t enjoy, neither can you profit from - any one of them”. (Maharajah, “A Princess Remembers”.) But in Daniela Deane, “The Little Emperors” we find a shocking contrast in the way the children are brought up. The parents and grandparents dote so much on the child and want to please it in every way that they lose sight of what they should expect for their children. They bear up insults and foul language used by the children and don’t correct them for the reason that they may lose the child’s love and affection. Conclusion: Due to their population problem, the Chinese have become pioneers in the field of contraceptive research, but yet 64,000 babies are born every day! What is China coming to? It would take rather a very long time, maybe a few generations from now, to have high expectations for their children and a higher standard of life for its people. Both the above essays are in vivid contrast to each other bringing out the striking differences in the upbringing and expectations for their children thereby giving the reader a prelude of what is in store and what can be expected of the present generation children in the near future. Read More