Fresh winter wind plays with my hair as my hair plays with my fingers. Remembering my childhood days! Winter meant sports practice, competition and also exam phobia!! Sports practice involved emotions of togetherness, team spirit, fellow feeling. We were ready to win at any cost - at the cost of cuts and bruises in our legs and arms. Despite the urge to win, we cried for the best friends' loss, even if they were in some other team.
Exam on the other hand involved emotions of survival, but in peace, with dignity. That too, at any cost. The fingers that are now tangling my hair, did a hell lot of mischief in childhood, to earn little bit of peace. The age was not matured enough to understand the true meaning of peace, the depth this 5 letter word has. Peace at that age only meant avoiding parent's scolding. I never had a dream to be a topper in the class, or even score high. I knew my capability and was happy being an upper mediocre student with 75% marks. I was happy living with my parents and grand parents, sharing lunch box with my friends, learning music, dance, swimming. But perhaps my parents rated me too high. They mistook me as a very intelligent girl who belongs to the top 10!! Poor me. Did so many wrong and bad things to make it look so. It included changing marks in my own mark sheet to copying my parents' signature. My my!! Those were the days. Every Durga Puja and winter vacation were pathetic for me. Days started with planning new mischief to save my back and ended with planning how to defend myself, my mischief, so that I don't get caught. Offense, then defense!! Now, I am a teacher!! Today, while giving invigilation to my students in a winter morning reminds me of those days of mine and makes me sad. Though, many elders and spirited persons later told me that what I have done is nothing wrong. That was the age and I acted accordingly. But yet I am in the nightmare, even today. From my colourful childhood experience, I conclude with two morals of the story.
I ) For my youngSTARS - Shortcut is not the way. It gives only worries and tensions. Not happiness. Don't do anything that spoils your night sleep. Begin the day in such a way and walk through it in grace so that at night you have good dreams, not nightmares like me, which haunts me even today. At this age, you may feel that life revolves round marks and grades only. But that is so wrong. You have so many chances to prove yourself....be it in school or high school or graduating college or even at your workplace. Trust me!! It only takes a morning when you wake up with full positivity and decide that "this is the day", a new inning. And once you start playing the new inning, there is no looking back. When you have so many opportunities, why should you compromise with your mental peace? So, just go ahead. My best wishes are always with you. God bless you.
II) For my GUIDING stars - Dear parents, 100 out of 100 in maths or being in top 10 in academics is not the only thing that matters in this greater world. A happy child, a happy family is all that matters. So, just don't worry. Your worries become your child's worry. They fail to express it like you. But in order to make you people happy, they choose wrong path. Its not their fault. Its their little brains and little hearts trying to achieve your big dreams. So just set them free. They will fly high. And I assure you that at the end of the day, the will come back to you, to rest in your shoulder or may be, to shelter you under their wings. So just sit back and enjoy watching them flying high and grow!!! Enjoy parenthood. God bless you.
OM SHANTI SHANTI SHANTI!!!
