As Anu kept herself pretty much occupied with her dance practice for the (then) forthcoming program, I had to, on many occasions, wait a while at the dance studio for the dance group to call it a day as I went to pick her up. I usually left my office a good 15-20 minutes after she would call to tell me they were 'finishing up' because their definition of 'finishing' involved a unit of time quite different from the ones we are familiar with on earth. But there still were occasions when my delay made little difference.
On one such occasion, I arrived at the studio, with my calculated delay and all, and found to my dismay that they were still a couple of items from packing up. I tried keeping myself occupied but my patience soon bore out, and I decided to take a little walk by the hillside.
The hillside is indeed what the surroundings were, as the dance studio was located pretty much at the foothill of the San Gabriel mountains. A 20-minute walk was all it took to actually reach trail-heads up the mountains, and a 10-minute walk would get you to a place from whence taking one further step northward would mean scaling an inclination of at least 30 degrees.
I decided not to go towards the hills because the place is full of bears and I had no intention of running into one of them today; I chose instead to just amble about with a much simpler goal: avoid the main road which sees a little bit of traffic. My aimless perambulation presently brought me to a park where I saw lots of parents with their toddlers. I picked a quiet bench, seated myself, and began leafing through the paper I was reading. Not too far to my left, on another bench, was a young man - probably in his 40's - reading 'Boeing Magazine', and occasionally glancing sidewards at a group of kids who were playing nearby. Perhaps his kids were part of that group...
Soon enough, one of the toddlers - a kid who looked about 5 years of age - came towards his father with red blubbery eyes.
"What happened, sport?"
"S___ (I couldn't catch the name as it was overpowered by his weeping) won't show me her painting, daddy!"
"And...?"
"I wanted to see what she was painting but she closed the book as I tried to look." Some more sobbing. "She won't even show it a little bit!"
"Well, so, why don' t you go a make a painting yourself?"
"But I want to see her painting, daddy!"
The father had taken his son onto his lap now.
"Hmm...Is that the only thing that would make you happy now?"
The kid did not answer but nodded assent. He seemed pretty sure of what he wanted!
"Well, champ, since the painting is hers, she gets to decide who she wants to share it with. If she wants to share it with you, she will, and if not, you don't get a say there".
"This is a very important thing to learn, champ. There will be plenty of occasions when you do not have a say in what is going to happen to you - that decision might be in the hands of someone else. But if you decide that your happiness (as is the current situation) is dependent on that someone else being favorable to you, then there will be several occasions when you will have to be unhappy."
"And that is not a smart thing to do at all - letting your state of happiness be decided by someone else! "
The kid had stopped sobbing now, though his eyes were still red and moist.
" There are several other beautiful things all around you. Look at all of that, learn to appreciate all that is around you. Then even if you don't get one of the things you want, you could be happily doing something else. Later, perhaps, your friend would come around and show you her painting herself. "
The sun was sinking steadily. The young father picked up his son and began walking out of the park, and their words grew fainter as they moved farther away.
" By the way, do you see that little bird by the roses? "
" Yes. "
" Can you see it hovering? "
" What is 'hovering'? "
"....."
On one such occasion, I arrived at the studio, with my calculated delay and all, and found to my dismay that they were still a couple of items from packing up. I tried keeping myself occupied but my patience soon bore out, and I decided to take a little walk by the hillside.
The hillside is indeed what the surroundings were, as the dance studio was located pretty much at the foothill of the San Gabriel mountains. A 20-minute walk was all it took to actually reach trail-heads up the mountains, and a 10-minute walk would get you to a place from whence taking one further step northward would mean scaling an inclination of at least 30 degrees.
I decided not to go towards the hills because the place is full of bears and I had no intention of running into one of them today; I chose instead to just amble about with a much simpler goal: avoid the main road which sees a little bit of traffic. My aimless perambulation presently brought me to a park where I saw lots of parents with their toddlers. I picked a quiet bench, seated myself, and began leafing through the paper I was reading. Not too far to my left, on another bench, was a young man - probably in his 40's - reading 'Boeing Magazine', and occasionally glancing sidewards at a group of kids who were playing nearby. Perhaps his kids were part of that group...
Soon enough, one of the toddlers - a kid who looked about 5 years of age - came towards his father with red blubbery eyes.
"What happened, sport?"
"S___ (I couldn't catch the name as it was overpowered by his weeping) won't show me her painting, daddy!"
"And...?"
"I wanted to see what she was painting but she closed the book as I tried to look." Some more sobbing. "She won't even show it a little bit!"
"Well, so, why don' t you go a make a painting yourself?"
"But I want to see her painting, daddy!"
The father had taken his son onto his lap now.
"Hmm...Is that the only thing that would make you happy now?"
The kid did not answer but nodded assent. He seemed pretty sure of what he wanted!
"Well, champ, since the painting is hers, she gets to decide who she wants to share it with. If she wants to share it with you, she will, and if not, you don't get a say there".
"This is a very important thing to learn, champ. There will be plenty of occasions when you do not have a say in what is going to happen to you - that decision might be in the hands of someone else. But if you decide that your happiness (as is the current situation) is dependent on that someone else being favorable to you, then there will be several occasions when you will have to be unhappy."
"And that is not a smart thing to do at all - letting your state of happiness be decided by someone else! "
The kid had stopped sobbing now, though his eyes were still red and moist.
" There are several other beautiful things all around you. Look at all of that, learn to appreciate all that is around you. Then even if you don't get one of the things you want, you could be happily doing something else. Later, perhaps, your friend would come around and show you her painting herself. "
The sun was sinking steadily. The young father picked up his son and began walking out of the park, and their words grew fainter as they moved farther away.
" By the way, do you see that little bird by the roses? "
" Yes. "
" Can you see it hovering? "
" What is 'hovering'? "
"....."
3 comments:
where is the climax, no dance, no fight?
Nice Vaazhkai paadam
Cheers
Thats a great lesson learnt which many of us oversee in life.
Very cute presentation...
The kid probably thought it better to stop crying lest father continues more of his speech !!
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