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Have you ever seen a child love? They do not bother to even ask the name of a person or thing they chose to love.
Lately, I have been spending a lot of time with young children. Playing in the park, going for playdates or just meeting my toddler’s new friends; and every time I look closely into the eyes of a child, something in my soul simply stirs. There is this innocence so precious and pure, something so heart-warming. I feel an overwhelming urge to protect them.
The other day, I had given specific instructions to my toddler and her friends that they would be dealt with serious punishment (No dessert after dinner) if they come and play in the kitchen. Interestingly, a little while later I hear a clang and before I can reach the ‘scene of crime’, I see one of her friend holding a piece of broken ceramic in her hand and standing near me.
‘I did not listen to you. I broke a plate. I played in the kitchen.’
Quite naturally the honesty with which it was said touched my heart deep, but since I am supposed to be the adult, I reacted with the following question.
‘Why did you play in the kitchen when I have told you not to?’ To which they all replied.
‘Because we like playing there.’
Needless to say I gave them dessert after dinner while explaining that playing in the kitchen is dangerous as they might get hurt hoping all the while that I am making sense.
Last week we went to the beach to watch sea gulls. While we were making our way to the end of the beach where the sea gulls come, we crossed lots of people sunbathing in the winter sun. Everyone were naturally in bikinis or shorts, with some of the women topless and lying on their chest sleeping. My toddler obviously noticed and said – ‘See mama, everyone is shame-shame. Why is everyone shame-shame?’
Before I could give a ‘mama kind of reply’ she said – ‘Because they like it that way.’
I can never imagine such purity of conscience in an adult and was startled by her acceptance of what is and leaving it at that.
Living in the moment is what makes sense with every spiritual teacher preaching it, but it seems one impossible task. The result of which people suffer from stress, anxiety and every possible thing. Have you ever wondered how naturally this comes to little children? Maybe they yell when they go to school first time but once there, they enjoy. They get involved with their present leaving behind their struggle in the morning.
I can never imagine adults ‘leaving worry’ and ‘getting involved in the moment’. I tried and could not hold onto the present for more than 30 seconds until another though came in and led me to another non-existent imaginary world of probabilities.
With all these thoughts in my mind, I sat down with my cuppa coffee when I happened to look at my reflection in the window. I looked closely into my eyes and saw that the innocence has gone, the honesty has been replaced with soft skills, the thrill of living in the moment has been replaced with unending ‘what ifs’. Where have I gone wrong? I wondered; and that day I realised that when I see into the eyes of a young child, I see what human beings are naturally supposed to be. I could not help but having tears streaming down my eyes because I realised that humans are born right but transform into monsters in the name of growing up. It is not them who need protection but the adults who need to be saved from deviating more from their basic human nature. Have you ever seen a child love? They do not bother to even ask the name of a person or thing they chose to love. At the same time have you ever seen a human love another human without a reason? We think only saints do that wise people don’t. I believe if we never tainted our conscience, every human on the planet would have had this natural capacity that we now call ‘saintly.’ Is tainting our children’s conscience necessary in the name of growing up? What would the world have been like if children learnt survival skills but kept their human nature intact? Yes, the world would have been a much wiser place. I realized that I cannot change the world, but as women raising the next generation, we can surely take care that every child retains their conscience led, clean and uncomplicated minds functioning while learning to manoeuvre through the world as it is. So, the next time when someone looks into the eyes of an adult, they see a conscience that is so pure and clean, something so heart warming, that it stirs something deep inside their soul.
Image via Pixabay
A Social Media Content Writer by profession. A writer by heart. A genuine foodie. Simple by nature. Love to read, create paintings and cook. Have impossible dreams. At the moment, engaged in making those dreams read more...
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Neena was the sole caregiver of Amma and though one would think that Amma was dependent on her, Neena felt otherwise.
Neena inhaled the aroma that emanated from the pan and took a deep breath. The aroma of cumin interspersed with butter transported her back to the modest kitchen in her native village. She could picture her father standing in the kitchen wearing his white crisp kurta as he made delectable concoctions for his only daughter.
Neena grew up in a home where both her parents worked together in tandem to keep the house up and running. She had a blissful childhood in her modest two-room house. The house was small but every nook and cranny gave her memories of a lifetime. Neena’s young heart imagined that her life would follow the same cheerful course. But how wrong she was!
When she was sixteen, the catastrophic clutches of destiny snatched away her parents. They passed away in a road accident and Neena was devastated. Relatives thronged her now gloomy house and soon it was decided that she should be married off.
Women today don’t want to be in a partnership that complicates their lives further. They need an equal partner with whom they can figure out life as a team, playing by each other’s strengths.
We all are familiar with that one annoying aunty who is more interested in our marital status than in the dessert counter at a wedding. But these aunties have somehow become obsolete now. Now they are replaced by men we have in our lives. Friends, family, and even work colleagues. It’s the men who are worried about why we are not saying yes to one among their clans. What is wrong with us? Aren’t we scared of dying alone? Like them?
A recent interaction with a guy friend of mine turned sour when he lectured me about how I would regret not getting married at the right time. He lectured that every event in our lives needs to be completed within a certain timeframe set by society else we are doomed. I wasn’t angry. I was just disappointed to realize that annoying aunties are rapidly doubling in our society. And they don’t just appear at weddings or family functions anymore. They are everywhere. They are the real pandemic.
Let’s examine this a little closer.
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