Just when Dhoni was being touted as the Gen next's iconic role model, who was not just a young and talented guy from a small town, but was also admired for his positive energy and cool headedness on and off the field, Team India was humiliatingly ousted from the T20 World cup, which came soon after the media's disenchantment with him. Now he is being written off by statements like..."Dhoni's honeymoon is over"

But even worse than the fact that India was ousted by losing to England (a team which lost to amateur Netherlands), is the fact that the World Cup was brought home by somebody so close to home. A formidable and God fearing team, they deserve the cup and the celebration that it has brought to a country in troubled times. The crowd which wanted to really rub it in, when confronted with an Indian media person was endearing to watch on TV.

Is it success which really crawls up to people's brains to cause debacles like these or the various pressures which come with being successful? One of them is trying to keep your place in the spotlight, I guess. The pressure of being the defending champions...

Very much the reason why kids should never be pressurized. They make such expressive drawings when they are young, a complete reflection of the world around them. My daughter made a drawing for her gharonda during Diwali, when she was four.It had everybody and everything, namely mummy, little brother, maid, cars, ants and when asked where Papa was, she said without blinking an eye-"He is in the hospital(working)" So true then, in India!

But as she grew older and was taught how things were supposed to be drawn, she stopped making these expressive drawings and kept churning out the age old two mountains with the sun rising from between them.

It is a challenge indeed to ensure that children feel free to express themselves without feeling the pressure to do things which look good and are what the world expects them to do. There is obviously a thin line between liberty and indiscipline, but then that is the reason Tony Blair had said that, being a Prime Minister is easier than being a parent.

There are the free spirits who get beaten up by the police in the middle of the night at the city centre, but maybe even they are there because they succumbed to pressures of a different kind- peer pressure. The kind which used to make pretty girls without boyfriends feel less pretty, even in my college days which is an age ago, so one cannot even begin to fathom the pressures for our kids. Parental pressure, peer pressure....

Lets hope they are strong enough to break free from all the pressures of modern day living, breathe the fresh air, enjoy life, identify their true vocations in life and make a concerted bid for them!