Baby Talk

Lessons from the Kiddo – Twenty minutes in the Bus

It was a usual Mumbai morning when I boarded a local bus. After some time I started hearing some chuckles from nearby. It was a baby, who was chattering around. I saw that a Muslim family had boarded the bus and that baby was with them; in his father’s hands. They had not got a seat yet and hence were standing. Then I heard some more noises, and found it was his little sister standing on her own. They were five of them – father, mother, baby boy, his little sister, and a lady in a burqa. The baby boy would be around one and a half years old and the girl would be of around three and a half or four. I looked up from my seat to get to see him clearly. He was a very cute little baby and he kept babbling; perhaps he was talking to his father. I couldn’t stop but smile wide, looking at him. Now the baby noticed me smiling at him! Our eyes met for some moments and all of a sudden, he jumped to get into my lap, with his both arms stretched towards me! His father stopped him from falling into my lap, as I sighed and looked away… After next stop they got a vacant seat just in front of mine and the two ladies with the two babies occupied it. Now, the real fun began…

After hyperactively doing a lot of things and making lots of noises, accidentally the baby boy snatched his sister’s hair. His sister was a baby too and she couldn’t tolerate this insult; so she pulled his hair in return! It was an uncomfortable sight, to see a two year old baby’s small hair being pulled up… The boy was shocked and couldn’t react for some moments, but when he realised what was done to him by his sister, he made a crying face! A moment later, his hands reached out to his sister’s hair and he pulled her hair with all his energy! The girl tried to protect herself, all the while she reached for his head again! This continued for some uncomfortable five minutes while their amused parents watched them fighting… Then the kids were separated and made to stop their bitter fight.

Suddenly, the baby boy found a stainless steel strip of the nearby window interesting enough. It was a shining piece, almost like a mirror. As soon as the kid found it attractive, he reached out at it with his open mouth and started licking it! I sighed and saw him with awe…

Twenty minutes in the bus with the kids, I saw so many emotions in the play… Baby tried to talk to his father with his babbles… As soon as the baby saw a friendly person in me, he tried to leap into my lap… When he hit his sister, she retaliated with equal force and he too went into a ‘hairy’ war with her… As soon as he found a piece of steel amusing enough, he ran to feel it with his mouth… So humane and so natural…

I realised that feelings of we loving others (him talking to father), our need to be loved (he running into my lap), to retaliate and hit back (fights between him and his sister), to enjoy nice things we find in life (he licking the shining steel), are just some very humane and natural ways we act like…

There is no mistake in we over-stretching ourselves a bit to love others; there is no wrong in seeking love from others; no harm in hitting back in defence; and no sin in enjoying good things we have in life…

Life should be lived naturally, humanly, and baby-like…

(Rahul)

Wishing you a very Happy and Prosperous Diwali! May this festival of lights bring loads of happiness and positive things to you…

The Pencil Sharpener

The Pencil Sharpener and Lessons from My Temptations

Our company launched a campaign in collaboration with an NGO called Goonj which works in the social sector. The idea was to collect some old discarded household items and then gift these to the economically poor in the tribal areas. I also tried to participate. I searched for some old clothes that had remained with me, and I also motivated some other personal friends to donate. I carried these items with me to my office. I had to deposit these anonymously in a collection box. I had a feeling that I was not doing enough, and hence I decided to buy something else to donate. I decided that pencils for children would be the best. If I donated some other new items, those may be sold / stolen; and the fact that mainly children use pencils made me feel good about it. I went to a shop to buy some packets of pencils on my way. There was a surprise for me there. It seemed the funny guy from TV who used to hit a sixer at the last ball in Nataraj Pencil Ad shouted from somewhere: “Nataraj Pencil ke har pack ke saath ab ek pencil sharpner aur ek eraser bilkul muft!” Now since I got many pencil sharpeners and erasers for free, I though I would keep one pencil sharpener with me and would gift remaining in the collection box. While I left the shop with that lone pencil sharpener in my pocket and remaining in the poly-bag, something chanced upon me all of a sudden…

“Why was that I wanted to keep that one pencil sharpener with me?” Gifting something for the cause was not compulsory as such, and many colleagues were not contributing. So it was not about being selfish. I already had a pencil sharpener with me personally – it meant I didn’t require another one as such. Then I realised I was not happy with my old pencil sharpener. Why? Because it was old! This new one was such a shining one and a red one and a bigger one! Ok, so it was attraction! Was this attraction justified? I thought if I didn’t keep that pencil sharpener with me, then it would definitely go to some tribal area and some very poor kid would use it some time. Also, I don’t use pencils very often and I don’t remember the last time I had to use a sharpener! I now wondered if my decision to keep that one piece with me was shameful… Taking a decision, I took that lone shining, red and big pencil sharpener out of my pocket and kept it along with other items in the bag…

I then tried to understand why I was so attracted towards that pencil sharpener. If I tell this event to anyone else, s/he would laugh at me and would call it childish! Yes, it was definitely childish - because whenever I remember a pencil sharpener, the first image that comes to my mind is my instrument box (pencil box) from my school days. Secondly – I sharpening my pencil, and some times the graphite point of the pencil would break. Some sharpeners would be misaligned and they would keep breaking the pencil points. Some times I would also use an old shaving-blade to sharpen the pencil. I would always keep a pencil sharpener in my pencil box – that would make me feel a proud and prepared student. When I would go to exams others would always forget theirs and would ask it from me. Now that so many images start coming in my mind, I got to understand that it must be some unfulfilled desire from my childhood – to have many shining, red, and big pencil sharpeners with me – and that would have made me get attracted to the pencil sharpener even now. I recalled that my childhood was not spent in scarcity by any standards and the wish to have ‘many’ and ‘more’ stationary items with me is actually the wish of every child. When I realised all this, I thought it was only fair if I allow another child from some remote tribal area to share the same pleasure that I cherish – of keeping a nice pencil sharpener with me…

Very often, some selfish, wrong, weird, or even shameful thoughts come to us. Those thoughts don’t prove that we are bad or corrupt. Having a strict control over our thoughts is not easy – but we can very well control our actions. This is what I did – discarding my thoughts of childish cravings for having that pencil sharpener, I allowed some other child to enjoy the same…

(Rahul)