Healthy Daily Pastime

We grew up with pastimes like reading books, playing outdoors or spending time with our friends and family members. Now as I look at most of the children these days, I see them busy with all kinds of videogames- on their consoles, on their parents' phones and laptops. While on the one hand, they are sometimes better informed than their parents because of all the available resources, on the other hand these very same resources can have a detrimental effect on them. Whenever I used to visit my nephew, I would find him playing with a console, eyes fixed on the screen hardly paying any attention to the people around, or playing on someone's smart phone sitting in a corner. It's true that we don't have playgrounds for children, but there is a lot we can do to help our children develop a healthy hobby. In our case, we have limited my nephew's screen time, bought him books that are easy to read and visually attractive and involved him into activities like riding a bicycle, swimming and playing cricket in our basement with other kids from our neighborhood. If you know/have kids addicted to videogames, it's never late to make them interested in some other hobbies.  
Kazi Amzad Hussain 
North South University, Dhaka

LENDING  A HAND

The other day I invited some of my friends to my place. As I told my mother about the guests, she happily agreed to cook iftar and dinner for them. The guests came at around 4 and we were busy chatting and gaming. Suddenly one of my friends asked for my mother and I told him that she was busy with making food for us. My friend went up to her and offered her some help in the kitchen. Even though my mother denied at first, my friend kept insisting. He came back to us saying we should help our mother with household chores, especially during Ramadan when she is fasting. He suggested that we could start with something very simple. The recipes that need many things to be chopped, we could help with the chopping. Something as simple as making serbet or arranging plates can go a long way and help her reduce the time she spends in the kitchen. We got back to her and helped with arranging the table and chopping. Even though we were not perfect in whatever we did, she was very happy with us. From that day onwards, I always try to help my mother with cooking and cleaning, as I believe its not her sole responsibility to look after our home. We all should lend our mother a helping hand with household chores. 
Faria Hoque
Dhanmondi, Dhaka