It's not just Saif!

There was a national furore over Saif Ali Khan’s boisterous behaviour a couple of months back. The press berated him for being angry and violent. And first of all for having fun noisily. The whole thing apparently started because Saif and his friends were so loud that it interrupted the people at tables around his. i agree that he shouldn’t have gotten violent and the hit the other guy. But being noisy - is it that bad? Aren’t our children left to have fun running around the restaurant making as much noise as they like just so we can have a good time? i can imagine quite a few people righteously shaking their heads in denial because their kids are well mannered!

i feel it’s not just Saif. So we should leave him alone and look around us. You are just as likely to run across noisy kids in any such place. It has nothing to do with being in a local eatery or a classy five star place. Last year, i stepped into a restaurant where the ladies at the table next to where we got seats seemed to have gathered for a kitty party. Thank God, it ended 5 minutes after we sat there. The kids they brought with them were playing a game of running around the pillars trying to catch each other. Going by the ruckus they made, they didn’t seem to mind that it was a restaurant and not a park. They are kids and kids are bound to make noise. But i was totally flabbergasted at the fact that not one of the adults responsible for them tried to control them even once! It was obviously convenient to leave them to entertain themselves no matter how inconvenient it could be for the others.

This was just an average eating joint. i’ve also seen kids running around at a plush 5-star place where you expect the people to be more cultured and understand he purpose of people choosing to be there - a quiet evening together. The whole time we were sitting there, a group of three kids (one of them even had tiny wheels below his canvas shoes!!) literally covered the length and breadth of the restaurant with the guys with wheels chasing around the other kids. And i am sure the parents, who i never got to see, were enjoying their quiet meal at the other corner of the place. And i am guessing that parents and kids have a natural tendency to find each other when it is time to go home at the end of their respective adventures!!

i cant help but draw comparison with the kids in other countries who are taught to sit quietly at the table. I am sure there are brats there too. But they seem to be fewer in number compared to how commonly we come across the opposite here. This could be because the people in general respect the boundaries of social space and I guess kids are taught to do the same.

i just want to wonder aloud - is it really difficult to nurture kids with sensitivity towards others around us? Is is so hard to get them to behave? Do we, as adults, accept this kind of behaviour because this, like everything else, “chalta hai” and who cares? Or is the answer just a shrug with “kids!! You can’t have them stay quiet at will and they will make noise”?