Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Lessons learnt

            "Mamma I will be back soon. You remember my gift ok?" her daughter yelled from the door as she ran to catch her school bus.
             Today her daughter was going to get the results of her internal test in school but Rachna was worried about something else. She was anxious about something her daughter had done. Rachna had prided herself for managing her job and her home perfectly. She believed she had ingrained good values in her daughter until today.
              Today she had found a storybook, tucked under the pillow of her daughter, while cleaning the room. It did not belong to her daughter Sana. Rachna opened the book. The first page of the book showed doodles done on the name previously written on it. Below that was a hurriedly scribbled "Sana". Her daughter had stolen the book from someone and kept it for herself. This was the cause of concern for Rachna. Where had her daughter picked up such a trait?
               Why Sana would steal was beyond Rachna's reason. That too a storybook? Knowing how avid a reader Rachna was, she would have gladly bought Sana the book if she had asked for it. Was her daughter stealing for thrill? The thought sent shivers down Rachna's spine.
                After thinking long and hard and setting aside the anxiety, Rachna decided to take actions to stop this habit of her daughter right away. Sana had to realise the wrong she had done. Rachna knew Sana was a sensitive girl. A wrong word or a little carelessness in handling the situation and her daughter would be lost to the wrong ways forever. One never knows how the tender and young minds work.
                Later that afternoon, Sana returned from school with a wide grin. She had got a 10/10 in her test.
"Mamma you promised me that you will give me a gift, where is it?" she asked.
"I did not get time to go to the market. I will go in the evening and get you something you will love." Rachna replied.
"Mammma, this is not done! You told me you will give me when I come back." she whined
"I will give you I said. Finish your lunch and get some sleep. Before you wake up I will get it ok."

Sana stomped her way to the bedroom. After sometime she came to the table for lunch. Rachna never pestered her to eat. She had taught Sana to respect food when it was served and not waste it. Once when Sana had thrown a fit because she didn't like a balanced diet for lunch, Rachna had taken her to the nearby street children and asked her to give her lunch to them. She didn't give in to Sana's demand for junk food for lunch and made her go hungry. But looking at the street children who feasted on her lunch, Sana realised how lucky she was to have fixed meals unlike the kids who didn't know when their next meal would come.

Today was time for another lesson. Her daughter had erred, but that didn't mean she couldn't improve.

"Wow my gift!!" Sana jumped in joy looking at the gift wrapped in blue paper.
"See I told you I will get it." Rachna said
"Ya ya mamma, let me open it."
She opened the gift and suddenly her face was pale.
It was a brand new story book but the same one which she had stolen from her friend.
"What happened Sana ? Didn't you like the gift?" she asked her daughter who wasn't seeing her in the eye.
"Its good." she muttered.
"You would have loved it if you hadn't already stolen the same book and read it." Rachna said

Rachna didn't utter a word after that. She didn't blame her daughter for behaving that way nor did she point out her flaws. She left it to her daughter to figure out the wrong.
Her daughter sat stunned. Her eyes were welled with tears.
Rachna took Sana into her arms and said,
"Sana I won't ask you why you did it. I will suggest you what you should have done. You should have asked me for the book. I would have given you. Even if I couldn't give you something, its not good to take away from someone else. You could have borrowed the book and returned after reading. Because you of your mistake you lost your gift. Because of you taking someone else's book, they lost their book. Now I leave it to you to decide how you are going to return the book."

Rachna had made a concious effort to not mentiont the words "steal" and "thief".
                                                     

The next day she saw her daughter making a card. Sana had made a "Sorry" card and attached it to the first page of the brand new book which Rachna had bought last evening. However Sana had not mentioned her name. Rachna didn't mind it. Mentioning the name would only lead to guilt and undue torment from other kids. Her daughter had learnt to give and learnt to make up for her mistakes.
After parting with her brand new book, Rachna was sure that Sana wouldn't make such a mistake again. If she had wanted, she could have returned the same book but she had made up for her wrong by giving the brand new one.

That afternoon when Sana returned from school she quietly went to Rachna and said, "Mamma I m sorry. I will never steal again. I gave her the new book with a sorry note. She was happy to find her book under the desk."

"I know dear. Freshen up and come soon. I have made your favorite dish for lunch and also made a chocolate cake."
"Wow chocolate cake!! For what?"
"One good turn deserves another." Rachna smiled.
               

13 comments:

sulagna said...

WOW mAITHILI THIS IS SO GOOD !!I CAN SO IMAGINE MYSELF DOING THIS SOMEDAY IF MY LIL BUB MESSES UP :)

CD!!! said...

Such a nice way of teaching kids. this story would for sure be very helpful to many of your readers :)

Atrocious Scribblings said...

Cannot help but Appreciate the perspective adopted by the mother in making the child realize and learn through her own actions instead of finger pointing and accusing her with harsh words.

Very Warm read. Keep it coming.

Cheers :)

Varsha said...

Wow...AWESOME..

Love it

Keirthana said...

Really nice way to teach people how to deal with tricky situations in bringing up children. No child is born bad, it is the way they are brought up or made to live. Good read :)

Meety said...

That was a very intelligent narration :)

Nirvana said...

MAithili.... as a mother, this is learning for me in a big way! thank you!

the little princess said...

wow..such a feel good story! as a mother of two, I can tell u, this was such a sensitive way of putting the point across to the child.

I have always been against reprimanding children, i did one post on this -(http://titli15081977.blogspot.in/2012/03/spare-child.html)

... and this is just the right thing to do!

Ayushi said...

Very well explained how to face hurdles in a child's life. Great work maithili!

And by the way I love the name Maithili. So ancient and classy. :)

sumitra said...

Very sweet!

maithili said...

@Sulagna: Thank you so much dear.. Hard to imagine your lil bub messing up though ;)

@ CD: I hope it does :) Sometimes the best lessons are self learnt.

@ Atrocious: Harsh words and accusations only make the child more stubborn and negative. To bring in the positive one needs to deal with the kids in a calm manner

maithili said...

@Varsha: Thank you :)

@ Keirthana: Very rightly said that no kid is ever bad. IT is the way they are brought up.

@ Meety: Thank you Meety :)

maithili said...

@Nirvana: Thats a huge compliment for me :)

@ the little princess: I do not think that no reprimanding is the right way either. But it is rather a very sensitive issue when to reprimand and when to be understanding. Reprimanding could be sometimes good when it comes to education but reprimanding never goes a long way in character building.

@ Hypocrite: Thank you so much :D

@Sumitra: thank you so much dear.