Turn off TV and turn on life

"The value of life lies not in the length of days but in the use we make of them," so says a French Essayist. What we do during working hours determines what we have and what we do in our leisure hours determines what we are. Time is a very valuable gift to man from God. Today comes but once and never returns, and once lost, it is irrecoverable.

But, in actual practice, how do we spend our non-working hours? Viewing TV consumes most of our time at home. We have become addicted to TV watching. TV has successfully cut the communication between husband and wife. It seems the only common interest among family members is watching TV.

The younger generation is exposed to all types of uncensored alien cultures. I read that in India, the social scientists and educators warn that due to the deluge of satellite television, the new generation is brought up on a diet of mindless western soaps and they will be unable to think for itself. There is already a noticeable decline in book sales in urban areas.

Watching TV may not be completely bad -- it's the excessive time we spend in this mindless exercise which needs to be curtailed. Children usually emulate their elders and parents. Too much time spent on TV watching by the children is detrimental to their physical and mental well-being.

No doubt good programs are sometimes aired on TV but because of their one-time screening, they do not get registered in our minds. On the other hand, it is the advertisements with their catchy jingles and visually-beautiful appeals, repeated over and over again, which are imprinted in our thinking. No wonder TV has been defined as a chatterbox that presents programs that give you a headache and then advertises a cure for it. And the "evening news" is where they begin with "Good Evening" and then tell you why it is not.

Reading is a pure pleasure. It gives us the knowledge of the world and experience of a wider kind. With the advent of TV and the multi-channel facility literally at our finger tips, we have lost the habit of reading. There are treasures in the books which we have only to explore. A lifetime is just not enough to do that.

Children ought to be taught to read and marvel at the wonders of written language. We have to wean the children away from TV. We have to inculcate in them the wonderful habit of reading. He who reads is never alone. The greatest gift is passion for reading.

So, let us take time to read. Let us enjoy and turn on life.

D. CHANDRAMOULI

Jakarta