Precious Moments

Anoushka and Jaineel are two more stars on my horizon. Anoushka is very bright, assertive, intelligent and a born leader. Jaineel is balanced, perceptive, sensitive and a happy child. Some unique creative writing moments are so precious, that they have to be shared.

One task for the kids was to write three wishes that were granted by their fairy godmother. Anoushka wrote that her first wish was to be the PM of India and the second was to get A+s in all her subjects. The third was to buy lots of clothes for her mother. I was really touched by this thought. Then she paused “Can I get four wishes?” she asked. “No, your fairy godmother is going to give you only three” I answered. She asked if she could change one wish then she rubbed out her third wish and replaced it with “I wish to go to America”. Well, seems self interest won over good intentions.

My story, one day, was about two college friends who met after many years. Both had got married and had children of about the same ages. “So that evening they came over to Aditi and Aditya’s place. The mothers hugged each other very joyfully and introduced the children.....”, “and then they sat and chatted with each other and forgot about the kids” continued Jaineel in the same flow without a second’s pause, a very interesting observation of human behaviour, kiddo.

Another day I asked the kids to write autobiographies. Anoushka chose to be a parrot. She decided on a beautiful name ‘Periwinkle’ and described the different kinds of food the parrot liked. Somewhere along the line she identified too closely with Periwinkle and continued “I like running, swimming and gymnastics”.

Sometimes I narrate a short story with moralistic undertones. One particular story was about a boy who told lies and how he had to keep on telling more and more untruths to cover up the initial one. Jaineel chipped in with a very profound statement “and there was no end”, an amazing realization for a seven year old.

The next week I continued on the theme and asked the kids to write points on what constituted good behaviour. Most came up with nine or ten points. These were the standard ones about being truthful, helpful, neat, well behaved and other such qualities. Anoushka wrote down thirteen points and was pondering over them when she saw something in her neighbour’s paper. “We should not waste money”. Promptly that became the fourteenth point and her last one was “We should not copy others” eliciting an affectionate but silent chuckle from me.

The world is waiting out there, kiddos, for you to make your mark. Good luck!