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If a stranger asks for direction in most places of Gujarat, India, he is likely to encounter some strange words, especially English words. Two of these words strangely occur together-‘Round Circle’. I mean, what’s a ‘Round Circle’!? People here, usually use it to define a Round-about ahead on the road! But isn’t it a almost redundant usage of words. A circle is round and a round can be defined as a circle! However, be it right or wrong, it does serve the purpose. People won’t remain lost on the roads in Gujarat.

Now I was reminded of this odd usage when I read about the ‘Tobias’ family in the USA. For Keith and Tracy Tobias, the parents of three teenagers in La Quinta, California, turning an old workshop behind their house into a movie theater for their children was an obvious move. In fact, the couple’s reasons had to do with more than their love of fun. The Tobiases were looking for a way to keep their children at home! For parents determined to stay on top of their children’s social lives, a rec room, fitted out with a movie theater, a Ping-Pong table and a video game area, seemed an ideal solution.

At a time when parents, especially in India, are doing everything possible to equip their kids to stand on their own feet and fend themselves when they move out, and kids themselves always on the look out for excuses and ways to remain out of the house and in many cases move out too, a trend in the USA to do everything possible to keep their kids at home is what else but a ‘Round Circle’ of social trends. “What goes around, comes around?”

Look at what all the Tobias family did to keep their kids at home. The rec room, once a woodpaneled corner of the basement with a dumpy couch and a TV with rabbit ears, went through a revival in more upscale form. The space that parents cringed at the thought of entering and adolescents couldn’t wait to escape has been reimagined, largely by affluent suburbanites, as a haven of home theaters, stylish furniture, stainless kitchens and spa bathrooms — all deployed as lures to keep teenagers at home! And the news is ‘teenagers are obliging’ or rather loving it!

There is a rise of a generation of “teenage nesters”, more HGTV than MTV. In her observation, “kids now enjoy entertaining like their parents.” And teenagers like the Tobiases’ son Jeff and his friend and neighbor Michael, both 16, seem to agree. Both said they would rather not drive to socialize. “I think there’s been a shift in the last few years,” Michael said. “It’s much cooler to do things at home, whether it’s watch a movie, work out in a gym, or just hang out. It’s just better at home.”

It took decades for them to realise it. I am not sure if the Indians in the USA still are catching up to this. But its important to remember, that all trends and fashions move around a ‘Round Circle’.

I know someone who is a great inspiration in my life. He is a medical doctor who dedicated his life in the service of tribals in areas close to Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. His name is Dr. K Muralidar. I saw him first in 1989 or 1990 and I saw him wearing flat fronts (though I never knew what it was then). In the years that ensued, I have always seen him in the same attire. Last year, when I met him, he was still in the same attire! But I bet that in the past two decades, at least two times, he was ‘in fashion’. He never changed, but the trends changed around him to make him look like ‘fashionable’ and ‘in trend’ atleast for two long periods!

Everything that man runs after, moves about in a ’round circle’, ‘as a matter of fact’ taking him also in that ’round circle’. Some trends take months, some years, some decades, and some even centuries! But the fact is ‘man is running around’. So much is the influence that he believes that his very life is also a part of a big ‘Round Circle’!!

I choose to differ. Everything going around may come around, but not “Time”. Time is linear and it just goes ahead and ahead and will never come around. A day lost is lost forever, never to be regained again. Never to be seen again. Never to be redeemed again.

So, in the journey of life, when you ask for directions, be sure that if someone tells you about a round-about ahead, he is surely misleading you. There is no ‘Round Circle’.

Disney may want you to believe it and sing it too! The famous song, ‘Circle of Life’ from ‘Lion King’ does reinforce the ‘Round Circle’ concept, but time is linear. The Bible says so. I believe it.

The Bible says, “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”

No ‘Round Circle’.

Tags: HGTV, judgment, Keith and Tracy Tobias, Round Circle

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 13th, 2008 at 3:23 pm and is filed under Articles, Fashion, Geo, Purpose of Life, Relationships, Society, Songs, Spiritual, Trends, Troubles & Problems, Women's Issues, Youth Issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.