By: Auroshree Pani, Class – IX-G

Health is the greatest wealth, they say,

In every right and every way.

It is a saying which is widely accepted,

Taught, preached, and never debated.

But one thing that’s got me wondering here,

Is do we really believe it, or is it too much to bear?

We’re in the twenty-first century,

The age of smartphones and high-tech machinery.

The classic letters have given way to email,

There’s an app for everything so no need to wail.

All we ever need is just one click away,

So we can stay home and let our body decay.

Gone are the days of walks and jogs,

Smartphones are everything our mind now hogs.

Facebook and WhatsApp are used feverishly,

Our intelligence lowers slowly but surely.

Eyes locked onto screens until late at night,

Let the spectacles grow thick as much as they might.

Earphones stuffed in all day and all night,

No sense remains of what is wrong and what is right.

Gone are the days of reading a book and playing a game,

Now all we care about is online fame.

We live on the internet and give ourselves migraines,

But we don’t really care what happens to our brains.

Food is neglected, thrown away as unneeded,

The advice of our elders remains unheeded.

Bags under our eyes and sleepiness in our head,

Seated in class we look like the living dead.

A disoriented and confused mind all day,

We have no idea of what to do or what to say.

The grades start dropping, but we don’t really care,

Smartphones are the only things which are there.

No food, no exercise, and not even sleep,

This thing called technology has pulled us in deep.

We sit at home and live on junk food,

But that’s okay ‘cuz it tastes very good.

The tummy starts sticking out, out and out,

And that’s when it makes us pout and shout.

But even then we stay home with ease,

Slowly but surely giving ourselves diabetes.

Some of us are different; we starve ourselves to be skinny,

Social acceptance is what makes us all whiny.

We take medicines to grow thinner, thinner and thinner,

We reject food at all costs and refuse to have dinner.

And then we go around everywhere preaching,

“Health is Wealth,” we start teaching.

Is this a joke hidden just out of our sights,

Or are we all just big hypocrites?

If health is indeed the greatest wealth,

Don’t you think it should be treated with a little more stealth?

If health is indeed the greatest wealth,

I think there is a much better way with which it can be dealt.