Too Soon To Enter The Dating Arena

Relationships are a tricky thing. Every one falters in one, one way or the other. People sometimes ask, ‘What is a good relationship?’ The answer is simple, if you ask me. There ain’t one. There ain’t a bad one either. There are only relationships!

I don’t give relationship advices to people. If someone does, I tell them that asking me for one is like asking Smriti Irani for educational inputs! Be that as it may, I still get funny questions about relationships. I choose not to answer. Sometimes, I just run away from such questions and there are times I am forced to say something or the other. What worries is me is nothing of this. Instead it is the fact that how young kids go into relationships these days. I have no kids, but I do watch my cousins who are in their teenage and how they talk about relationships around me. Once I asked one of them, ‘Don’t you think you are a wee bit young for this sort of thing?’

He looked at me as if I was deranged. ‘You can say that! But I don’t want to be called a ‘loser’.’

I was a bit shocked. My cousin was just 14, at that time. I don’t remember me being interested in girls at that time. Not when I was struggling to make sure that things like algebra and trigonometry would stay in my head. Apparently, the younger generation think that having a girl/boyfriend would make them look cooler. Whoever failed at obtaining one is tagged with the title, ‘loser’. So, in my understanding, there exists an elite club of boys who had ‘relationships’. Still, the question remained in my head;

‘Isn’t this a wee bit younger, lads?’

Well, they don’t seem to think so. My mother, who happens to be a school teacher, tells me stories of kids from 3^rd grade and 4^th grade having puppy fights regarding puppy love affairs! Though we laugh about it over a tea, we do think how healthy this trend is. Mom thinks these things would die out in a few years, that after school, kids go different ways and they will find someone new and finally settle down with someone else! That may be true, but what if some kid gets hurt during these puppy loves? I think kids these days have a deeper access to technology than when we were at school! I cross a school every day on my way to University, and I pass umpteen number of school buses to that school, with kids bent over iPads and smartphones! I wonder if such unlimited access is good for them. May be there are a certain number of parents who think their kids having a ‘girl/boyfriend’ is a cool thing to talk about! But I am not very sure if it is a healthy thing at all. Not when I am sure that kids are called kids for a reason; they aren’t adults! As adults, most of us aren’t very good at handling relationships. Then, how can we expect kids to do that, especially when we are pushing them for other things!

This has been written by Manu S Kurup. Manu is an aspiring novelist who is fascinated with photography! Although he tries his hands at anything that enthralls him, he now wants to be a chef.