And it was yet another regular evening when my three and half year old daughter was playing in the neighborhood park and I was just observing her…
“Don’t catch me mumma…don’t hold
me…Aadya is a strong girl and I will take care of myself!”
These are the usual words she
utters when she notices that I am getting worried to see her jumping from the
unusual heights, sliding fast with a zupp… sound and falling down on ground
after being brutally pushed by elder children…
And there she is making a sand
castle, unaware of the fact that something fishy is being cooked in the mind of
a boy standing just behind her. I chose not to warn her and just observe what
the boy is up to and how my little princess is going to tackle that…
Suddenly the boy, double the
height of hers and may be double the age of hers too, snatched the spoon she
was using to make sand castle and poured a spoonful of sand on her…By the time
I reached the spot (may be a few seconds), she was already shredding the sand
off herself and before I could say anything I heard her saying – “What you
did!”
But she didn’t cry…She turned to me and sobbed a little…”Mumma see, he
has spoiled my hair and clothes! He is also spoiling my sand castle!” I said
don’t worry, it has happened just to make you more strong! There are so many
people in this world and not all will behave the same way we expect out of
them…some may leave good while some will leave bad impressions on our heart and
slowly we will learn how to tackle any situation!
I also gave a stern stare to
that boy who probably felt ashamed but was not ready to accept his mistake. I
thought he will move away and make himself busy somewhere else, but he
didn’t…rather he took the spoon and started pulling out more and more sand from
the ground…
I thought it’s better for me to
divert my daughter’s mind into something else and hence took her over a
slide…she always enjoys that! And the idea worked! Soon she started enjoying
this new game and forgot the mess on her hair and dress…She ran fast, climbed
the stairs quickly waited for her turn and then zupp…she is down…she can do
this whole night I think sometimes…J
Not to her much joy, a group of
children came who looked like cousins and were speaking a different language, started
climbing the slide from front (not from the stairs)….This interrupted the
children from sliding down and a few children including my daughter felt
disheartened…Then to my surprise my girl said…”Excuse me! Can we go turn by
turn?”… Readily the other group of children accepted her request and they
started playing all-together one by one…With the giggles and laughter sound all
around in the park, every parent seemed to be feeling like happy and refreshed!
Father of one of the child, who
was probably observing me and my daughter for quite a long time then came to me
and asked…”Which school does she goes to?” I said Capitol public school…
He said…Oh that’s not a big
name…I have heard they do not teach very well…Then how come your daughter has
such good communication skills? I just smiled, did not reply anything because I
didn’t feel like correcting his thought about any school…he was a stranger and
I generally do not speak much to them…
Not receiving any answer from my
side made him put more stress on his mind…and he came out with self-satisfactory
answer....”All thanks to your husband, that your daughter is so good at
communication”.
Before I could understand what
he meant, what type of mentality he carries or how to give him back in the best
possible way, he had already left!
I stood there still with many
thoughts flashing in my mind – why do people give credits only to husbands…Why
do people believe that only expensive and so-called branded schools can provide
good education…and whom do people think actually provide the best education to
kids?
While I was taking my daughter
back to home from park, I believe the loudest thought in my mind was – it’s the
parents, the family and the environment in the house of a child that provides
him/her the best education in their initial years and nonetheless throughout
the life!
Please feel free to comment if
you agree or disagree J