School Bags - The Load Indicator

It was just last friday. I was leaving for my office after having a hearty lunch. There were a few children happily returning home after what would have been a hectic schedule at their school. Nothing out of the ordinary. However, there was one thing that grabbed my attention and got me thinking. It was the school bag  of one of the kids. The school bag was of a trolley-bag design. The type which is usually used while we travel, for bags which are too heavy to be carried off the ground.

Have the school bags to today become so heavy that the poor children cannot (or at the least, cannot be expected to be able to) carry them. Perhaps, that is true. With the increasing number of subjects and other related curricular, co-curricular, extra-curricular and whatever-curricular activities that the students of today are supposed to keep up (or should it be 'put up') with, there may be so many items to carried every day that the  kids have to use a trolley bag.

It made me glad that I already finished my schooling when the academic load did not test your weight-lifting abilities. I used to carry a simple canvas school bag, which, frankly could not hold much. A few books, my lunch box and a few pens. That's it. When I was in school, I was pretty confident that I could handle my academics on my own and my parents coming into the picture happened only when there was money to be paid or I had been 'bad boy' at school. 

Thank God! my schooling is over. God help me when my kid goes to school.