Wait Makes the Arrival Sweeter

Every single day I have waited for it, thinking this would be the day when it actually arrives. But hours melted into days and days into months and yet no trace of it. My desire to watch it, transformed into urge which gave birth to desperation and I soon reached the stage of hopelessness. But it was not under my control so I had to resign. I stopped looking for it, a little annoyed and a little angry within my heart at its treachery. Why did it make me believe in the first place that it would follow me wherever I go and in which ever state I be. It was supposed to be my dear friend in thick and thin and it has been so since the time I felt the unusual bond with it. I know it may seem illogical for a reasoning mind but I prefer to have faith on this saying more than on any sort of reason - 'Mano to bhagwaan nahin to pathar'.

No I am not talking about any God here, this time it is my one and only beloved rain. Not just rain, everything that comes with it - the dark clouds, the cool breeze, the threatening lightening and the deafening thundering because they set the stage perfectly for the magnum opus. Everything amuses me, humbles me, brings out the appreciation for the divine creation of a perfect being. Since the time I remember having developed this strange association with seemingly inanimate phenomenon, it has never let me down. My happiness has always been reflected back by its jubilantly dancing raindrops and my sorrows have been drowned in its uninterrupted downpour, on not one but almost all the instances. There was no reason to believe otherwise but the fact that we were pals extraordinaire.

But since I left my abode of last seven years, there was not even a trickle of water from the heavens high above us. It felt as if I am left abandoned by my companion to face the vicissitudes of life all alone. Life has not been the same because the feeling of being watched over by someone, the assurance that someone would mend anything for me, is priceless. Well, some things cannot be forced to happen just because an individual feels so strongly about it.

Anyway, months passed hopelessly and very unpretentiously there it was one day thundering, roaring, raring to go in all its regality and affluence, not with a single element missing. The spectacle was one that I had never witnessed before, completely out of this world. It soaked everything from dusty green leaves which were now fluttering and displaying their shiny green colours, the parched ground, the thirsty fauna, the withering flora, to my melancholy heart. It compensated much more than what I had hoped for. Because this time, it brought the realization that sometimes the wait makes the arrival of a dear one even more special and significant. Once the feeling of granted starts seeping in, the fun of appreciating the other and the uniqueness itself start getting compromised.

I think I needed this message at this time. How wonderfully a simple natural process never fails to bring home a subtle point which feels so appropriate at any given time. I know someone high above is really watching over me and would not abandon me because His messages have been loud and clear to me always.

Creative Story Telling

On request of my children that I should create a new story every time, I try to spin stories on the fly and I keep adding some twists to simple plots as I narrate.

Here are a couple of stories with very simple plots but which amused the narrator and the audience nonetheless.

Pea and Potato 

Once upon a time, there was a pea and there was a potato. One day they started arguing. Pea said, "Potato, I am the prettiest vegetable in the whole world. You are so brown, so ugly and so boring." Potato said, "Pea I may not be the prettiest vegetable but everybody loves to eat me." And they kept on fighting and fighting. One elderly Banyan tree was watching their argument and suggested that they should ask some children because children are the most unbiased creatures in the whole world and will give the correct verdict.

Thankfully they both agreed to listen to this suggestion and went to a group of children in the park. They requested the children to decide about their dispute. The children first listened to each side's reasoning patiently and then started a brainstorming session amongst themselves. It seemed like a very difficult task to decide anything on this issue. There was no one right answer. But kids are kids and they find the way out when they set their minds to it.

After a short while, they appeared in front of the pea and the potato and told them that we all like the dishes made from both of them together like samosa, poha, aloo-matar curry and many more, so considering this, you both are very special and you both need to work in complete harmony to make delicious dishes for all of us. Pea and Potato both were satisfied and also realized that it is not important to be superior to others, what is more important is to be able to work in unison with others.

 Who Should Be The King Of The Jungle

Once upon a time in a jungle, a Donkey was lazing around in a pumpkin patch when he started thinking about his family, his friends, his acquaintances and his enemies too. Gradually his mind wandered into a territory where he started questioning things. One such question made him really furious and excited at the same time. He could not find any valid reason for the Lion to be the king of the jungle and not a Donkey. So in order to understand the reason, he thought of fixing up a meeting with the King of the jungle - the Lion, directly. In order to do that he very intelligently thought of first calling him up. He made a phone call to the Lion and first enquired about his health and then asked him if he could come over to meet. The Donkey very frankly told the Lion that he is coming to meet him, so the Lion should not even attempt making him the meal. He mentioned that this is a very important matter and this cannot be discussed if he is afraid of losing his life while talking to the King. The Lion assured the donkey that he is already full after having eaten a full Zebra just in the breakfast so the Donkey can come over fearlessly.

At the appointed time, the Donkey reached Lion's den. Without wasting any time, he expressed his feelings to the lion and why he should not be the king of the jungle. He further asked, "Lion ji, just tell me, why do you think you are the king? What exceptional quality do you have which makes you superior to other animals and especially us donkeys? "

Lion replied, "We have a ferocious roar and all the animals shiver at the sound of our roar".

Donkey had his reply ready, "Why, we have an equally fearful braying too - Dhanchoon, dhannchoo. Haven't you heard animals complaining about it so much and haven't you seen animals running away from us when we start braying? "

Lion was speechless, so he suggested that we should call a meeting of all the animals of the jungle and then let them decide who should be the King of the jungle. The condition is, this meeting is compulsory for every single inhabitant of the jungle.

So on the designated date and time, all animals reached the meeting venue. The Donkey explained the issue to all the animals and then the animals started discussing the problem and what could be the possible solution.

………..

Now after this, I asked the kids to pretend to be a particular animal of their choice and decide who should be the king of the Jungle. Two in-house thinkers chose to be a rabbit and a giraffe and gave some very interesting answers and equally interesting reasoning.

Happy story ending to you too :)

Please do share the solutions suggested by your little ones here. 

Problem Solved ?

Age : 8+ years

And it happened yet again. This was the time of 2011-2013, the Earth creatures were in deep distress once again. There were vehicles everywhere on the Earth and because of that the pollution levels were high, almost all breathing creatures were getting severe health issues breathing vehicular gases all the time, the prices of all fuels were sky rocketing, and the fuel reserves were depleting at an alarming rate. This meant, the situation was really getting out of control and something had to be done sooner than later. The most intelligent of all creatures, a representative of one of our species decided to finally take the step of solving this problem for good, so the person suggested that we build a gigantic ship, almost like a Noah's ark and we gather one representative from each living species. Having done that, the ship sailed to the abode of Lord Vishnu in Ksheer Sagar, where He was resting in His most famous pose and Goddess Lakshmi was caressing His feet. It seemed like they both were unperturbed by the trials and tribulations of the living beings on the Earth. All those who had travelled this far, stood in front of the Lord, bowing their heads down. On being asked by Lord Vishnu the purpose of their visit, the human being was entrusted the task of narrating their day to day agonies on Earth to Him.

After having listened to what they had to convey to Him, Lord Vishnu became very pensive and remained silent for what seemed like an eternity. Goddess Lakshmi could feel the impatience of all the ones who were standing in front of the Lord waiting for the divine solution, so she nudged Lord Vishnu to speak up. But what God told them was definitely not what all of them were expecting. Lord Vishnu told them that this was one of those problems for which He did not have any solution and since this was what the humans had done on their own, they needed to find the solution to this problem. Now all eyes turned towards the very miserable looking human being. He was cornered now and was expected to speak up. At that moment, his prized possession - the brain cells started working at a supersonic speed and why shouldn't they, after all how often God Himself waits for a solution in front of him. And true to its reputation, the Human brain came up with an idea.

He requested God to let all the humans retain their vehicles but with an added boon, the owner of the vehicles should be able to convert the vehicles into any living creature of his/her own choice when the vehicles were not in use. For instance, a car owner would be able to transform his car into either a dog, a cat, a plant, a bird or even another human. But how would that help solve the problem, everyone asked. The human explained - since each vehicle could be converted into a living creature of any species, they would not consume any more fuel (which solved the problem of depleting natural fuels from earth) but would eat what the living creature of that species ate, they would not emit harmful gases in the atmosphere since they would not be using the petrol or other fuel in the vehicle and also no parking space was required to keep the vehicles. So just imagine all the extra space you all would be getting which was being dedicated to keeping the vehicles.

No need to mention that all the creatures were impressed and Lord Vishnu and Goddess Lakshmi too. At that moment Lord Vishnu said - "This is the reason I created a human being who is blessed with unmatched capability of exercising his brain power. They have such a huge benefit that they can transform any situation to avert any kind of calamity or problem. But at the same time, they must realize that they should not push things to such a state that other creatures start getting disturbed because of their actions".

A special moment...

Age : 8+ years

This has always been the case with Meena, she never wants to bend her rigid ways for anybody and today was no exception. But then why am I getting so perturbed this time, I know her disposition, she wants it her way or no other way. Perhaps I am in one of those sulking moods today. Atleast one good thing is I am aware that I am just going downhill with this thinking. I am getting more and more agitated thinking about her and her idiosyncrasies. But I resolved silently within my heart, I need to modify my behaviour with her, she does not deserve the same me as I am with other good friends of mine. She should also feel the difference.

While deeply consumed in my own thoughts I did not even realize that I had already covered half the distance towards home and forgot to hire an auto. And now there was no point hiring one for the remaining distance and anyway the weather was really pleasant today, a big respite from the scorching heat of past week. The sky was overcast with thick grey clouds and a cool breeze was blowing, imparting the much needed relaxation to my agitated nerves. But after a short hiatus, the mind again went back to the same thoughts - why it happened, how could Meena expect this, how could she behave in this irrational manner. The same thoughts engulfed me once again, and this time the chain got broken only when little droplets of water fell on my face from the heavens above. I still had some distance to cover to reach home but the drizzling was a welcome development. I was enjoying the intermittent drops of rain reaching me. I love rain, I admire rain, I adore rain, I relish rain, I cherish rain. There is something in this natural process which always fills my heart with warmth and gratitude for this one of the most loveliest gifts to all of us. And at that moment I was glad that it started drizzling, taking my mind off the disturbing thoughts for sometime. I watched the rain drops falling one after another in rhythmic manner - some landing on my feet, one on a tiny ant which was just ahead of me, one on a little new leaf which was perhaps not more than a day old, one on a wilted yellow fallen leaf, some on the bags of excited schoolchildren who were walking ahead of me and some on the road - making all kinds of sounds.

The raindrops were falling unconditionally - on anything and everything. I just wondered, does it ever occur to the raindrops where to fall and where not to fall. Do the raindrops ever bother about losing their own identities, rather they seem to rejoice in sacrificing their selves the moment they land on anything. They do not select the recipients of their blessings. They do not try to judge whether anyone deserves their kindness or not. They are there for everyone to enjoy. How kind, how selfless, how unbiased. That was the moment, I knew my heart melted. Why was I being judgmental, why should my behavior be dependent on who is on the receiving end, why should I deteriorate my own self. Meena or anybody else, I should be the same person, no matter what. In that life transforming moment, I knew, I was a changed me - a much more peaceful one, a much more happier one.

Finding Oneself

Age Group : 8 to 14 years

After walking four rounds around the big playground, I sit on one of the benches in one corner of the ground. Many people come to this playground to walk, some elderly ladies practice standing yoga asanaas in one circle and a group of children come at this time to get the coaching for the game of football. It is such a large playground that many subgroups play in the field at any point of time and many different sports - football, cricket, volleyball or just jogging around the ground. I prefer sitting close to the group of the boys, who come for the football training. One reason being, they do not hit the ball very hard so I do not have to worry about any ball coming my way, second, I like the way children try to incorporate the tips of the coaches in their game and lastly the sun rays saying farewell for the day do not aim directly at my eyes in this direction so it is easy to sit here with my hands free, one hand not doing the service of providing shade to the eyes.

This is the perfect bench in the whole playground. From here I can see the activities of the playground while appreciating the last rays of the sun warming anything and everything coming in their way for the last time before slipping down, and the warm hues bathing the rooftops of the buildings with their brightness. It appears as if after working diligently the whole day, the sun is tired and ready to retire and before bidding adieu to the world, it is inviting and introducing its twin brother to all of us for a little relaxed time before the activity starts again in the morning. Sitting here for an hour or so every evening during this time has become one of the highlights of my days.

This has been my routine since almost last six months barring those days when it is raining heavily during the evenings. The routine of rainy evenings is completely different, perhaps another story for some other time.

Since I have been a regular spectator of the football training and game, in spite of not knowing the names of most of the children, slowly I have started recognizing them. From their conversations, whatever I overhear from the distance, I know that most of these boys are between 10 to 12 years of age. All boys look almost of the same height and physical fitness except for one who is very tiny although of almost the same age group as the rest of the gang. I came to know about his age when once his grandfather was sitting next to me on the bench and as most of the elderly people do, he started the conversation with me and while talking he told me that all these children are in either fifth or sixth grade and his grandson Arun, is also in sixth grade.

But Arun clearly is the smallest and thinnest in the group and many times I notice him getting teased and bullied because of his low stature. Often the other boys try to kick the ball too high just to make fun of Arun's height or push him while trying to grab the ball in the game. These small sub-activities are not so apparent to attract attention of people (coaches or the grandfather) if they are not very keenly watching it. But Arun's subtly changing facial expressions do not go unregistered on me and I watch this happening from the outside as a mere spectator. Almost everyday, once or twice something like this happens and I can feel the pain crossing his face and eyes. Many times I feel like talking to the boys or to the coaches but then something dissuades me, not sure what. Other than this irritant and spoiler, I like watching the boys full of life playing with zest and energy, somehow it recharges me and I feel completely rejuvenated after the day's work to go back home and work some more.

Today is no different either, I completed my fixed four rounds of the playground and headed towards my favorite location - the cement bench in the corner. The boys had already completed their running routine by this time and now the coaches were forming the teams for the game of remaining 45 minutes of the training. Usually at this time I see almost all boys excitedly raising their hands up so that the coaches pick two of them to be the captains of the teams and as expected I never see Arun's hand up but strangely he raised it today and he got selected as the captain of one team. Yes, there is some difference today, my eyes followed Arun closely and keenly observing his face, I see a little peace which has replaced the fear of previous days to quite some extent. The game is on now, soon there came a very high ball straight towards Arun and he jumped a little higher than the usual and hit the ball with his head towards one of his team mates. There indeed was some change and I was getting curious by every moment to know what it was. I was extremely happy for Arun and observed that the other boys had also started appreciating his game. Then a whistle blew and half time was announced. Arun came towards me, actually not towards me exactly, his water bottle and bag were on the same bench where I was sitting. He sat for 5 minutes next to me and then ran back to join the other boys on the field. His body language was much different than the previous days. The other half time of the game went away pretty fast and Arun managed to hit two goals and their team won by 4-3. His team mates were ecstatic and they carried him on their shoulders and were clapping for him. The game was over and now the boys were relaxing, drinking water and packing their bags to head home.

Arun came to my bench again for his belongings, I could not resist to strike a conversation with him and I first congratulated him for being an awesome captain today and asked him how did he manage to come out of the fear. First he was surprised to be questioned like this by a stranger but I was not completely a stranger either so he told me, "I had come with a resolution today that I will just focus on myself and not on others or what they say or do to me. I observed that I had not been playing, I was just getting afraid of others and feeling bad about how I look. So I decided that I will not even listen to their remarks if they are about my height or me being different from them. I have been wanting to be a captain too and today I finally raised my hand and since I have never done so before, the coach gave me the chance to captain one team. This helped me in my resolve and I kept doing what I had decided." A very simple lesson learnt by a small boy and told in equally simple words to me. While telling all this to me, he was packing his bag and when he was done, he said goodbye to me and left the ground, his grandfather was waiting outside the playground for him. I kept sitting and pondering on the evening's activities for a little while longer. And I concluded, this was actually one of the most important life lessons learnt in the true sense which will be with him forever. The lesson of self-belief, determination and bringing the focus on oneself than on others. Arun had found himself today.

Using the Wings

Age : 10+ years

The day was bright, the sun was in its usual regal place watching out for everybody, the gentle breeze was imparting life to everyone around, the colorful birds were making their presence felt by filling the atmosphere with their chirping. Everything was just as it should be, as it has been, as it would be perhaps. But there was some lurking fear, some corner of my heart not happy, something bothering me, some anxiety, some apprehension in my heart. I was not able to exactly place my finger on what was disturbing me but I could feel something was not right, something was not perfect. It felt like some emptiness somewhere, some fissure slowly tearing my heart apart. I was mechanically doing the daily routine tasks since last week but my soul was somewhere else, quite far from my physical body.

I got up from my desk which is against the window that gives me a beautiful view of the lawn outside and went out in the lawn. I wanted to bring a much desired interruption to my chain of thoughts which was leading me nowhere, so thought, perhaps a change of place would give me what I am looking for. I went to sit on my usual spot - the one under the mango tree and it felt good as the fresh air of early morning was working magically on my mind and body. But soon enough the same lurking fear caught me there too. I should have known. Whom am I trying to dodge - my own heart, which is with me all the time and for how long, is it even possible? So why not get comfortable with the lanes in which the heart wants to wander. I stopped fighting with it and for the time being let it take control of the feelings and mind. While sitting there totally under the heart's spell and feeling melancholy, I looked up and heard some commotion going on in the nest which the birds had built three weeks back. Since this place was my regular hangout spot, I had witnessed each and every stage of these birds - right from the diligent efforts of the maina birds collecting twigs, straws, dry grass blades and leaves to make the nest, to the egg laying and the egg hatching phases.

Now there were four baby birds in the nest and they were being provided with food at regular intervals by their parents. I had watched them doing it many times during the day. They had gradually become a part of my routine life, I enjoyed throwing a quick glance at them many times during the day or watching them for extended durations doing their duties. But today some unusual turbulence was happening in the nest, it felt like some noisy interaction going on between the nest inmates. Perhaps they also argue and disagree with each other as we humans do so often. I went inside my room and sat on the same desk again from where the nest was very clearly visible and soon enough I could see the reason for their loud chirping. It was the day when the parents were giving the baby birds the training to fly. They had set a very simple target first, one parent sat next to the nest and the other sat on the opposite branch. The one sitting next to the nest was pushing one baby bird at a time towards the opposite branch. For just a split second it felt like the baby bird would fall but then the survival instincts would kick in and they could flutter their wings to reach the opposite branch in the warmth of the parent's wings. This training session was so captivating that it was hard to take my eyes away from the scene and I earnestly watched the whole exercise of baby birds learning to fly.

At the end, the chirping grew even louder and I assumed it was the celebration time in the nest and this celebration was so well deserved.

Personally a part of me was rejoicing with them but one part was a little angry at the parents for their way of teaching the baby birds to fly. What if any of the baby birds could not make it and fell on the ground? Wasn’t it too difficult a training session for these creatures? Did the parents have no concern for their babies? But then thinking a little rationally I understood the importance of this kind of teaching. The baby birds needed to explore the world and be on their own and this training part was the most important lesson for their future life.

This small realization magically lifted the burden from my mind too as if my anxieties and fears also grew wings and were flying away. Was it the God's way to convey a message to me that I also need to explore the world on my own now and should come out of the comfort zone of the home? And going to a hostel for my higher studies is the necessary training phase of my life. Since last few days this was the thing which had been bothering me. The apprehensions of a new place, a new setup, new people, practically everything new. It is always difficult to be completely prepared for any change but then change is an inevitable thing and will happen anyway so atleast it can be approached with more positivity and more enthusiasm.

Nature - the Supreme Teacher

Age : 6+ years

From a distance it looked like a small, tiny, bright green speck on one of the branches of a huge Peepal tree. A new leaf was in the making. A new life, a new odyssey, a new journey was about to commence. It was a bright sparkling green leaf and within two days he unrolled his face towards the sun. The leaf glistened even brighter and shimmered in the rays with twinkle in the eyes. The tiny leaf was thrilled to see such beautiful world lit by shining sun all around. The dawn sun rays were slanting on the Peepal tree and were imparting a divine glow to everything that came in their fold bringing promise of a lovely day and a wonderful life. Gradually the leaf began noticing the tree he was connected to, he realized that he is a part of a huge tree, a member of a big family with many such beautiful leaves as his siblings and relatives. He was thoroughly enjoying being a part of a giant tree and to be experiencing such enchanting surroundings.

With the cheerfulness befitting a young soul as him, he got engrossed in observing and soaking up everything around him. Suddenly he heard a voice, somebody was calling him. He looked around, it was one of his relatives - a leaf just below him. But that leaf was quite unlike himself, he was all wrinkly, shriveled and almost pale yellow. The wrinkly leaf welcomed the new leaf and started talking to him as all elderly people do. They enjoy interacting with all and especially kids. The new leaf was playful and very observant too. While talking to the yellow wrinkly leaf, the young leaf asked him - "Why are you so different? Why do you have so many lines but I don't? Why do you look so shriveled?" This inquisitiveness made the wrinkly leaf laugh a little and he said, "You won't understand it now, but you will slowly come to know what these lines mean. Just keep observing things around you and you will get these same lines over a period of time."

It was spring time, the time when earth gets adorned with all fascinating new things - new baby plants raising their heads out of soil, beautiful flowers look like multicolor garlands around the necks of the plants and trees. The new leaf was feeling blessed to be a part of this big party going on in the nature. Some days passed and nature started displaying some changed colors all around, the Sun was getting more hotter, the water was less, even the soil looked very dry and cracked and the leaf felt thirsty almost all the time. Some of the little leaf's siblings and relatives were wilting, drying and dying in need of more water. But even in this scarcity, they all were trying to watch out for each other and share whatever the little water they had amongst themselves. United they stood to be of service to others forgetting about their own hardships. The little leaf learnt some most important lessons in his life during this time - sharing the limited possessions with everybody, to remain united even and especially in adversity and in spite of struggling hard to stay alive and green, the tree was always trying to be helpful to others by offering shade and resting place.

But this tough time also did not last long, soon there were gurgling and grumbling thick black clouds in the sky followed by much awaited rainfall. The parched soil got to quench its thirst to its fill and so did all the leaves, flowers, branches, stem and of course the roots. The leaf was happy for himself and for all his treemates. There was abundance of water but this was the time when they all were missing the warmth of the sunrays and then the leaf realized, it is easy to forget about the blessings when we have them. In the absence of these same blessings we tend to feel their need and value their presence in our lives.

After a couple of months it felt like the clouds have poured out all the water that they had been accumulating over time and they have no more, and the cool harsh winds started blowing and shook the trees hard. It was the dreadful time for all the leaves, especially the older ones because they were being shook vigorously by the winds and even after striving hard, they were not able to hold onto the tree. The leaf which was no longer a little leaf himself could see a lot of empty spaces being created on the grand Peepal tree, ready to welcome a new cycle of life, some new leaves and their new journeys. And on one such rough day the young leaf's first pal, the elderly leaf also bowed down to these mighty winds. The little leaf looked at the yellow leaf lying lifeless on the ground and felt a deep personal loss. While going down, the wrinkly yellow leaf asked the little leaf to now look at himself and see how many lines has he developed. The leaf did the same and was shocked to see almost the same kind of lines and wrinkles on his own face as he had noticed on the elderly leaf when he had just arrived on the tree.

The leaf was adequately equipped to comprehend everything, his own experiences had been his teacher all through. He was feeling honored to have these wrinkles as they signified his maturity over time. These were the lines of wisdom, of gain, of loss, of togetherness, of separation, of abundance, of scarcity, of life and of death. The leaf had the poise to appreciate the great inevitable changes in nature, one life making room for another for the larger betterment and growth. The leaf felt enriched and complete. These experiences were his prized treasures and the life lessons that he learnt were priceless.

Picture Perfect

Age : 6+ years

While cooking dinner, I heard something - has it arrived already? Did my ears hear the correct sound, or was it just the imagination of my mind? I ran out to the balcony to check and yes, the sky was overcast and it was actually the thundering that I had heard and soon enough big raindrops started plopping from the heavens above. The first showers of the monsoon - the irresistible sight. There is something magical about the first rain of the season which brings me out to watch. So continuing with this lovely routine, I left my cooking in the middle, quickly made a big cup of tea for myself and took my easy chair out in the balcony. It didn't take long before I got completely immersed in watching the raindrops washing the dust off the leaves, landing on the metal railing, falling on the parched ground where the dry soil seemed to just hide the raindrops in its folds as if it was not ready to exhibit its possession to the world. It will do so, but not yet, it needs to soak the drops in first, to quench the thirst of the innumerable creatures inside its layers that have been waiting for this day.

While sitting on the easy chair, umpteen memories of such rainy days went through my mind and I was just relishing everything - the time, the tea, the thoughts and most of all the rain.
I was so deeply absorbed in listening to my own thoughts that it took a while to register that a big group of little children had come in front of my balcony and were dancing and playing in the rain. Their loud peels of laughter interrupted my chain of thought but nothing seems to bother me when it is raining and soon I found myself relishing the sight of little children getting drenched in the first showers. These were the same children who occasionally came to me to ask for some help in their studies when their parents were not around or to just talk, or if nothing else some of them just came to sit on my computer chair - the big chair which gave them an emperor kind feel, the wheels gave the mobility and spin, in short - a mini merry-go-round thrill. But that day none of them wanted to be indoors. While completely soaked up in watching them, suddenly my eyes fell on a window of a home which was in front of my balcony, normally the doors and windows of which are closed, but that day, there was somebody sitting near the window and watching the dancing children. It looked like a small girl of 5 or 6 years. I saw some from the group of playing children waving at her while dancing in the rain, which meant they knew her. Then why was she not joining her friends in the rain? This thought crossed my mind but did not bother me and I soon forgot about it.

All of a sudden the playing children made a circle and joined their heads together as if brainstorming on some issue, perhaps thinking about a new way to make their playtime more interesting. But I saw them running inside the building and I heard a loud knock at my door. I opened the door and saw all of them standing in front of me. And together they started requesting me to allow them to take the computer chair out - the big chair with the wheels. I was not happy with their demand of giving them my chair in this kind of weather and I was wondering why even they asked for such a thing. But something (the rain I guess), made me not decline their peculiar request and to my own surprise I permitted them to take the computer chair for a little while. I thought they would take turns in sitting on it and the others would spin the chair to have more fun. But they actually did not come back in front of the balcony and disappeared somewhere else. I was silently scolding myself for having giving in to the irrational demand of the children and was a little apprehensive that I would get a spoilt soggy chair which would not be usable for many days. But once again I was startled by even louder cheerful cries of the children and what I saw was unbelievable. The child sitting on the chair was the girl who was sitting in her window watching the playing children a little while ago. But this time she had a lovely bright smile on her face. After looking closely at her, I noticed that she had a very heavy boot on one of her feet and some metal rods were going up from that boot. The purpose of earnest need of the computer chair now dawned on me.

The scene was complete and the picture was perfect now! No yearning in any heart, no guilt in any heart and I thanked God that He did not make me think miserly while agreeing to the demand of the children. And my computer chair found the best use that day.

Tale of a Tail

Age : 4+ years

Do you have any idea how difficult God's job is and that God also gets tired doing his chores the whole day!!! His chores include - deciding about what to place where , what structures and figures to be assigned to all living things, same for non-living things, how to differentiate between various organisms, to decide about the life spans of living beings, their activities while they live on the earth, their aging process, how will they function and so on the list goes on and on… I think, you got an idea...

One day in the very beginning of the formation of earth when all living and non-living things were created, he was resting peacefully very happy with his origination of natural things - mountains, hills, valleys, rivers, oceans, forests and plants. But regarding the living beings who can move, God was still deciding about some of the finishing touches to be put on them. He was still deeply thinking about the finer details, but while thinking and deciding, he got really confused between all the creatures and was not able to remember how do some species exactly looked. So he called one representative of each kind for a special meeting at his place.

A messenger was soon sent across to inform all the living organisms about the special meeting that was scheduled. On the designated day and time, one representative from each species arrived and all were very anxious to know the purpose of this meeting with God, all of a sudden.

Many of God's helpers were inviting and directing the guests to a big guest room and making them comfortable in their seats. After having made them sit, the guests were given God's message that he will be deciding about some of the final features for each tribe and one of those features would be a tail. Till that time no living creature had any tail. All the guests were surprised to hear about tail and they wondered why to have a tail - another burden to carry somewhere on the body.

The messengers left leaving the guests talking in whispers amongst them. In the guest room, there were large number of huge tables and a grand feast was organized on those tables - all kinds of fruits, vegetables, sweets, sour things, salty things and all possible kinds of everything that is available in the world. But the guests did not have the courage to eat anything without the permission of God so they were sitting and waiting for the God.

But God was still not sure what should be the criteria to decide about the tail, he was deep in thought and hence was getting delayed to go in the guest room. Just to see what all of his guests are upto, he took his invisible form - in which he can watch everything and entered the guest room.
I am sure you are aware of his invisible form as this is the form in which he watches us all the time.

So he was there yet unseen by all. He watched how the creatures started whispering to each other when his message about the tails was read out to them, and slowly they were getting restless just waiting and waiting. They all had the grand feast in front of them and they all were getting hungry also. This gave God a brilliant idea for the criteria to assign a tail and specific size of the tail to the creatures. He started watching them very closely and witnessed their increasing restlessness every minute.

Initially all the guests were displaying self-control but then some started getting extremely hungry and hence restless. Slowly some of the animals started nibbling on the their favourite foods which were in front of their eyes. Some were still trying to control the hunger pangs and temptation of delicious food and were waiting for the permission of the God. Some animals like cheetah, tiger and lion were very smart, they secretly grabbed some very small animals (who were among the guests) , silently slipped out of the big guest room and gobbled those small creatures up.

After having watched everything that was going on in that guest room, God appeared in front of them and everybody could see him. He greeted all the guests first, then he wondered aloud that a major portion of food was already eaten and also some guests were missing. So he asked them who ate the food and his tiny guests.
The guests were too petrified to confess, some creatures totally denied having eaten anything, some lied about the amount they ate whereas some told the truth.

Suddenly something strange started happening with some animates. Some of the guests started getting tails on their backs. For some, the tails grew little and stopped shortly but for some it grew and grew and grew. But there were some who did not get anything on their behinds.

Then God explained to all his guests the reason behind the appearance of tails and the burden which they will have to carry from now on - the burden of own deeds. Now it was not difficult to understand - no tail means no lie, shorter tails mean less lie and longer tails mean big lies. One human representative was also there and he had displayed great self restraint and did not lie when later asked by the God. Thanks to him, we do not have any tails. So is true about those tiny animals (like bats and frogs) which were secretly wiped out by seemingly very smart lion, tiger and cheetah. But these same animals - tiger, lion and cheetah got very long tails.

So using this criteria God assigned tails to the moving living creatures.

Since God is present everywhere all the time, do not make him change his decision about us humans. Because who knows some day he may notice you telling lies and then he may want to put a tail on your behind too and then that tail will tell the story of your deeds to everybody.

Love Increases by Giving

Age : 4+ years

Sumi and Renu are not talking to each other, everyone in the community seems to be talking about just that. It is indeed a surprising event because as far as people can remember, they have always seen Sumi and Renu fondly playing with each other or talking or studying together. Since the time when the two families moved in this community, Sumi and Renu have been inseparable, they both were 4 years old at that time. They are in the same school and in the same class too. This Diwali, they will complete 5 years of their friendship and moving in their current homes. It seems, the time has just flown away or may be all good times do.

But the two best friends are not to be seen together any more. What could be the matter? Parents in both the homes want to ask them but at the same time they want the girls to solve the matter amongst themselves. But this is not destined to be. Three days have passed and still they are not acknowledging even the presence of each other. Where have the happy faces of both these friends gone?

Now Sumi's mother cannot wait any longer for things to come back to normal as it is obviously disturbing Sumi and Renu both too much. She decides to talk to Sumi after she comes back from school.

In the evening, she calls Sumi and asks her, "Sumi, is something the matter between you and Renu? If something is bothering you, talk it over and try to sort it out."

Sumi says, "Mummy, it all started when two weeks back, a new girl - Sudha, took admission in our school and in our class. Sudha is a nice girl and since she has joined in the middle of the session, so she needed help to cover up the portions that we have already done in the school. Our class teacher told me to sit with Sudha so that she is able to understand the things easily and during the free time, she can copy the previous work."

Mummy says, "That is good, you should always help others. But how is this related to problem between you and Renu.?"

Sumi says, "Mummy, Renu does not like that I am sitting with Sudha all the time and even in the free time I am helping her instead of spending time with her. She thinks that I am doing it on purpose and I want to avoid her to be with Sudha more. I have tried to make her understand many times that our friendship does not get affected by my helping anybody else or she doing the same for others. But since last week she has stopped talking to me and that made me also angry and now I also don't want to talk to her or be with her."

Now Sumi's mother understood the whole problem. She asked Sumi to get ready to go to Renu's home for some time. Renu's mother was very happy to see them. When all four of them were sitting in the living room, Sumi's mother asked Renu and Sumi both to bring a rose flower from the garden. They both did as they were told

and brought a beautiful rose. She told Renu to keep the flower in one corner of the room. She kept it in one corner, behind the door and came back. Then Sumi's mother asked, you have kept the flower in one corner where you cannot even see it, but now can you keep the fragrance of the flower also restricted to that corner. Both Sumi and Renu said no as the whole room was filled with the fragrance already. Sumi's mother told them, love and affection are like fragrance of a flower. It has the ability to give joy to all. Love does not become less by sharing, on the contrary, it increases manifolds by giving and sharing it with more and more people. Why do both of you want to keep your loving and helping nature to just two of you. Let others get benefit from it as well. Sumi and Renu both understood the point and then Renu confessed that she was getting jealous of having to share her friend's time with Sudha. But now she realized that she was trying to hold the love and affection tightly to herself. When she started thinking on these lines, all of a sudden all the anger which had accumulated in her, vanished and she was happy again. From next day in the school, they both tried their best to help Sudha catch up with the school work.

Pleasure Of Journey

Age : 6+ years

It’s a chilly mid-December morning in Delhi. Bhanu wakes up early in the morning and starts his day with a little heaviness in his mind. What will happen today! He is regretting very badly that he dozed off to sleep at 12:00 am at night when he had planned to stay awake for two more hours. He had to finish revising a few more things that he had planned for those two hours. He is feeling very bad about the work that he could not do the previous night and already it is giving a little headache to him, which he is sure will increase by the end of the day. But no point thinking about it right now when he has to get ready to go to school. From today the half-yearly examinations are starting. This is the crucial year when he is going to appear in his first board examinations of tenth standard. He has been a good student throughout his school years but tenth class is always a different experience. The pressure that is being associated with the board examinations and the further admissions based on the exam results, sufficient reasons to create anxiety in any student. He wants to be a scientist and for that he wants to take science subjects after tenth and that too in the best college in the town. For that, he needs extremely good score and this aim is keeping him awake late nights preparing for the exams. The half-yearly exams are just for the namesake, but all the syllabus has already been covered in the school and the whole three months, that are left before the final board exams will be devoted to revising the syllabus over and over again and trying out all possible kinds of questions from those portions.

Bhanu has good support at home in the sense that his elder brother helps him in studies whenever Bhanu has any doubt and his parents are providing all the comforts to both the boys so that they concentrate on their studies with focused mind. Their parents do not pressurize them, they know that the boys are responsible enough and are doing their best already. But one thing is bothering them about Bhanu, he is under too much pressure just thinking about what will happen if he gets a little less marks and is not able to secure a seat in a good college or is not able to get science subjects. This mind set and tension of Bhanu is increasing day by day. They have discussed it among themselves many times but never talked to Bhanu about it. But since the half-yearly exams have been scheduled, they are noticing that Bhanu is so tensed that it has started affecting his health also, he is loosing his appetite and complains of headaches more often. His father decides that once half-yearly exams are over, he will have a frank conversation with Bhanu and will try to tell him to relax a little bit. So after a week the exams got over. In the school, the Christmas break started and students were expected to study hard during these holidays to get ready for the pre-board examinations in February and then final board examinations in March.

One Sunday during the Christmas holidays, Bhanu's father takes him to a nearby park and there he starts telling him a story about an ant who used to work very hard every day. The ant used to climb a very tall tree everyday and get some bits of fruits from the tree to its anthill. The noteworthy quality that ant had was that it never looked at the top of the tree before starting its tough climb, it always looked at 5-6 steps ahead and kept working hard on those, climbing one step at a time. Then Bhanu's father asked him a question, what would have happened, if the ant had seen the tall tree before starting to climb? Bhanu thought for some time and then gave the answer that if he had looked at the tall tree before even starting the climb, it would have got worried whether it would be able to make it to the top or not. The ant would have got a little discouraged or would have doubted its ability to do such ardous task. While answering this question, he slowly realized why his father was telling him this story and what is the significance of the question and the answer. It all started making a lot of sense to him too. He thought, if I keep getting tensed about the outcome of the examinations, I will not be able to perform as well as I would if I just concentrate on the work in hand. He felt very relaxed after understanding the point that his father wanted to make. The journey should become more enjoyable. He was doing the "working hard" part, very well, only change that he needs to bring was to enjoy it, without worrying about what will happen later. Just changing the thought process makes a lot of difference. His father was very happy that Bhanu could see the importance of getting pleasure from the journey itself rather than worrying about the results.

Being truthful to oneself

Age : 4+ years

Vasu is studying in eighth grade and he is very good in studies. He listens to his teachers in the class very attentively and studies well at home too. His mother helps him with studies at home. He always stands first in his class. One day he had the final exam of mathematics and he had prepared it very thoroughly. His parents knew that since he works so hard he will score full marks in mathematics. When he was in the examination hall, he started answering the questions one by one very neatly in his answer sheet. He already knew those questions so he was very happy. But when he looked at the last question in the question paper, he was shocked, he did not know anything about that question and did not know what to do. He was getting restless as he was expecting to score full marks in this exam. He was thinking and looking around and somehow he managed to look at the answer sheet of another student who had done that particular question. He got tempted to copy the same answer on his own answer sheet, he started doing that also. But then he remembered one thing that his mother always told him, be truthful to yourself first and then to others. He realized that by copying this answer he is not being truthful as he is giving an impression that he knows that question himself but the truth is - he does not know how to solve that question. He immediately felt very relieved and erased what he had already copied and started checking the other answers that he had already written on the answer sheet. He felt extremely confident that what he did was the right thing to do. He came home and told the whole sequence of events to his parents. They were very proud of Vasu and told him that what he did was the only way of doing it right. They were more happy now than if he had cheated and got full score.

God is Watching

Age : 4+ years

Anay and Bansi are very good friends. They study in the same class. They are neighbours too. They walk to their school together and enjoy each others company a lot. Everyday in the evening, they play together in the playground. Anay is very hard working boy and does his work in school very sincerely. He has beautiful handwriting. All the teachers like him a lot. He and his work is appreciated by all his teachers.

Bansi is also a good boy but he is very careless in doing his work. He understands everthing nicely but when he does his written work, he is always in a hurry to finish it off soon so that he gets free time. This makes his work messy and handwriting bad.

One day, in the school, the teacher gave a project to write about the wild animals, to the whole class which they had to submit the after five days. All the students were working hard to make their project report more beautiful. Finally it was the day to submit the project. On that day Anay fell sick and was in no condition to go to school himself. Since it was the last day to submit the project, he was very worried. His mother thought of an idea that since Bansi is going to school so he can take Anay's project also with him. His mother took Anay's project in the morning to give it to Bansi so that he takes it school. Bansi was happy to take Anay's project for the submission. While walking to the school, out of curiosity, he opened Anay's project. When he saw Anay's beautiful handwriting and how neatly he had done his work, he realized how bad his own project looks in comparison to Anay's project work. He felt jealous of Anay and at that moment, he wanted to spoil Anay's project a little bit so that it does not look perfect. He took some mud in his hands and smeared it on Anay's project. Now it was looking muddy and dirty.

In the school, Bansi submitted both the projects to the teacher.

When the teacher started giving marks to the students for their project works, she was surprised to see Anay's work dirty. She knew that Anay's work was always the best then she remembered that Bansi had brought Anay's project and she thought, he must have dropped it while bringing it to the school. So she gave the maximum marks to Anay for his project work and for his sincerity to do everything beautifully. For Bansi's project work, she gave him very less marks as it was as usual, very badly done and that too in very bad handwriting.

Even though Bansi thought that he was intelligent enough to spoil Anay's work when no body was watching him. There is God, who is watching each and every action of all and He does not let anyone down who does good work and does not let anyone get away by doing wrong things. So before thinking of acting wrongly, remind yourself that God's eyes are on each one of us always.

Make your heart bigger and feel the happiness

Age : 4+ years

Amit was a 6 years old boy, who was very cheerful and friendly. He enjoyed doing different activities and visiting different places with his parents. Because of his friendly and cheerful nature, he had many friends around his home and in his school. A new family moved in their neighbourhood and in that family, there was a boy of same age as Amit, his name was Vinay. Amit and Vinay soon became best of buddies. They played together on the swings, sometimes on the slides or in the sand. They always liked doing outdoor activities together. Everybody in the neighbourhood knew about their friendship. Amit had many toys at home and out of them he had one small red car which was very dear to him. He always played with this car at home. Even while sleeping he always kept it near his pillow. As is the case with other children, this toy was much special to him compared to other toys he had.

One day Vinay came to play with Amit at his home for the first time. When Vinay saw that red car, he started playing with that car. Amit did not like Vinay touching his favourite car; he did not say anything to him but wanted Vinay to leave soon. When Vinay felt that Amit is not interested in playing with him, he got bored playing by himself and left to play at his own home. Amit's mother noticed this. She did not scold Amit or even talk about this behaviour of his. She had never seen Amit behave like this with his best friend. After a few days Vinay again came to play with Amit at his home and again the same thing happened. Amit was very disinterested when Vinay started playing with his red car. This time Amit's mummy observed it very closely and realized that Amit actually does not want to share his favourite toy with his best friend. She thought of a way to handle this problem. The next day, she invited Vinay to play with Amit again at Amit's home. Before Vinay came, she sat with Amit and very lovingly started talking to him and while talking Amit opened up and told his mother that he liked his red car so much that he does not like when anybody else even touches it, even if it is his best friend Vinay. Mummy told Amit, “Amit, tomorrow Vinay is again coming to play with you, try one thing. This time try to make your heart a little bigger so that when Vinay plays with your favourite toy, you enjoy the happiness your toy is bringing for Vinay. Try it once, if you do not like it, do not share your car with him ever. But atleast try to get that feeling once." Amit agreed and promised his mother that he will try to do what his mummy had said, atleast once. So the next day when Vinay came to play again, even though Amit was reluctant initially, he tried to be happy with the game Vinay was playing with the red car. Slowly Amit also got involved in that game and in no time both of them were happily playing with their red car. This time, both the friends were happy that they had such nice play time together. When Vinay left, mummy again came to talk to Amit and asked him how he felt today. Amit told his mother that even though he did not like Vinay touching his red car initially, but then he tried to feel and enjoy the happiness of Vinay and slowly it was more enjoyable when they were playing the game together rather than when he plays with his red car alone. It was just a matter of how narrow or broad we make our heart to be. Just a little thought changes everything. If we make our heart big, it will feel the happiness of others and will become even bigger. On the other hand, the narrow heart can only contain a little happiness. So by keeping the heart small, we starve it for happiness.

Atleast try to get this feeling once, make your heart bigger.

Who is Bigger

Age : 2+ years

One day a crow and a sparrow started fighting. Crow said that he is bigger than the sparrow and the sparrow said that he is bigger than the crow. While they were fighting on this issue, a rabbit came that way and he asked them what is the issue of their fight. They both told him about their dispute and they asked the rabbit to decide who does he think is the bigger one. But the rabbit said you both are small, I am bigger than both of you and then all three of them started fighting on the same issue about who is the biggest one amongst them. Then a cat came that way and she asked the sparrow , crow and the rabbit about their fight and when she came to know about the issue, she said, all three of you are smaller than me, I am the biggest one and now all four - sparrow, crow, rabbit and cat started fighting. Then came a dog and the same thing was repeated again and now all five animals were fighting. While they were fighting, a fox came that way and she came to know about the reason of their fight. As fox is a very clever and intelligent animal, she thought that if they keep fighting like this, they will never be able to play together and enjoy so she gave them a very wise advice. She told them that whoever doesn't fight is actually the bigger one, no matter how big or small that animal is physically. So if any of you want to be really big then that animal should stop fighting and start playing with others. All the five animals liked this suggestion and they stopped fighting and started playing and enjoying with each other.

Crops rescued by birds

Age : 2+ years



Once upon a time, there was a boy Raju. He lived in a village with his parents. His father had a small piece of land on which he grew crops. He was a very hard working person. He always had very good crops and the money was sufficient for all of them to live a good life. When Raju was 15 years old, his parents got really sick and were not able to do any work. During that year, the whole responsibility of the field came on Raju. He used to go to school in the morning and after coming back from school, worked in the fields. With his hard work, he had a good crop that year. Around his field, there were many mango trees and many birds had made their nests in those trees. When the crops were ready, the birds used to peck on the grains. Raju never shooed them away as he used to feel happy that the birds are getting their food from his field and anyway, how much can the tiny birds eat. Rather he used to watch them with delight. The birds also noticed this and they were not scared of Raju, they pecked on the grains everyday and go back to their nests to feed their little babies. This went on for a month. One night when everyone was fast asleep, the bird heard some noises from Raju's fields.

They were surprised to see that some donkeys had entered Raju's fields and were fighting there, and while fighting with each other they were just trampling on the ready crops of Raju. The birds felt bad and wanted to save Raju's crops, so they all got together and went near Raju's hut and started chirping in their most shrill voices. Raju and his parents woke up and went out to see what was happening. When they saw donkeys in their field, Raju ran with a long stick and made the donkeys leave his field. He was really thankful to the little birds for saving his hard work.

Even the small creatures know how to repay the kindness.