Innocence to experience, let’s retain the purity
As soon as the six-monthold boy was brought into the room, everyone’s expression changed to buoyant, playful and joyful. It made me ponder over how infants exert a powerful, though short-lived, influence on us. It’s powerful because of the intense purity. It’s short-lived because we adults will always, knowingly or unknowingly, take back the reins of life.
The realm of psychology offers the notion of tabula rasa, the Latin phrase for a clean slate. It highlights that individuals are born blank with no mental content. It’s the experiences and perception beginning immediately after birth that start shaping the personality of a child. One might ask then that are we to blame for a troubled young population? The answer would be both yes and no, and one might delve into the genetic theories also.
In any case, taking the whole train of thought to a different dimension, if we remember the song, “Bachche mann ke sachche”, and introspect on the truthfulness of our own hearts and actions, we can’t deny that we are no more children; we are adults. ‘Impurified’ by our selfish desires, jealous tendencies and ever-increasing greed, we bring up our children more or less as our reflections.
If we bring them up as our own reflections, why do we let our hearts melt upon watching an innocent baby sleeping soundly? It’s because each adult human craves for that purity. But, when the challenge of being that pure ourselves befalls upon us, we hide behind the cloak of the lament that it’s a deceitful and untrustworthy world. So, when and where will it start?
They say charity begins at home, so can this purity. Next time, we begin criticising the neighbours or our child’s class teacher, let’s stop in our tracks and dwell on life’s big gifts instead. Next time we are tempted to complain about the government, or our workplace policies, let’s divert the conversation towards feeling grateful for a democracy and a job. Small steps, ripple effect. Huge transitions, albeit slow. There’s no time to lose.
I’m reminded of an image on WhatsApp where two mothers are standing with their children on a pavement. They see a cleaner with a broom doing his work. While one mother warns her offspring to study lest he ends up working like the cleaner upon growing up; the other mother encourages her child to study so that she can build a better world for the cleaner. That’s the kind of attitude and paradigm shift required.
The other day my eight-year old son caught a butterfly from the garden and put it in a box. We were coaxing him to free the beautiful and delicate creature. With all the cajoling, he went out to free it and spotted a similar butterfly. After opening the lid of the box and setting the colourful insect free, he came running inside and exclaimed that the butterfly’s sister had come looking for it.
Indeed, ‘Daudney do khuley maidano mein nanhe kadmo ko, zindagi bahut bhagati hai
bachpan guzar jaane ke baad’.
WHEN THE CHALLENGE
OF BEING PURE BEFALLS UPON US, WE HIDE BEHIND THE CLOAK OF THE LAMENT THAT IT’S A DECEITFUL WORLD