Adulation & Fame .....Twin pitfalls for young prodigies

We are in the midst of a communication and information technology taking a quantum jump. Computers have reached every village and the Internet has created an aura and suddenly thrown open the world to every net surfer in every nook and corner of India.

Reality shows like Saregamapa and Star voice of India etc have turned the public into raving crowd which is highly opinionated, regionalized and most of the times polarized. Immediate fallout of this polarization is that singers with support of his or her state wins the contest when the state rallies behind such a contestant who may or may not be a worthy winner.

These singers are so much adulated that old timers like Lata ji or Asha ji etc must be wondering that to be well known by the world, it took them decades and these young kids become world famous overnight. The Internet is a tool which creates overnight heroes and heroines.You would find that Orkut or Face book will host fan clubs for such prodigies and in a short time, the whole world would starts knowing them and adulating them.Such reality shows bring in politicians, ministers , film producers , actors and actresses to bring in more and more public adulation.


This type of instant fame is most often misunderstood by both the young prodigies and their parents and taken advantage of by the TV channel and producers of the reality shows to bind them into a contract and milk them dry of their talent in a short time to make huge quick bucks. Within days of becoming well known , these gifted children are engaged by various associations in their own countries of foreign countries to stage their shows.

I am sad to comment that even the parents of such gifted children have come to know that it is best to make money when the going is good. This is because every year , number of channels host singing reality shows at both India level and regional level and produce another newer set of young talented children ready to challenge the older set of singers.

So every individual except the young child with gifted voice is set to drain the child of his or her last ounce of talent by working him or her day and night by pushing them to attend contests,shows, Programmes, Tamashas, Jalsas, product launches and what not. The shootings go late into nights. The children's tiredness does not figure anywhere. It is the money that is of prime importance.
In short, such wonderful kids are treated as ATMs by the parents, the TV Channel and the producers of the reality show.

Such children have been seen having an early break down or highly disturbed adolescence and spoiled and some times tragic life.
In west, many such young children have been found to have disturbed psyche, drug addiction and withdrawal symptoms once the glitz and glamour leaves them and the world which has a short memory forgets them and starts adulating younger and newer actors and artists.

I will just give the example of Michel Jackson the legend of a pop icon. His father pushed him beyond limits to perform when he was the lead singer as a child . He was often and on physically punished and beaten black and blue when he was too tired to perform.
The result was that Jacko as he was known, lost his childhood completely and the joys that go with childhood. The whole world knows that he could never become an adult mentally and ultimately he had a very disturbed life. He died due to over dose of drugs.
Same thing happened to Dana Plato , the young girl who played Drummond's daughterin that famous TV serial "Different Strokes.
She went into drugs in spite of a successful TV and cinema career and was arrested for armed robbery and ultimately committed suicide at a young age in her thirties.

I would request my readers to read what the following link has to offer about lost childhood of top ten child actors,

http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-self-destructive-child-actors.php

Near our home, recently a very young good girl contestant from Bihar Poonam Yadav who starred in a reality singing contest allegedly tried to commit suicide due to failure in not getting break in film playback field.

I want that the parents of our idols that I have mentioned on this blog will read this and take due care to save the childhood of their young children and stop getting them being exploited by money hungry producers and TV channels who do not hesitate from using these gifted children as ATMs.