Story telling is my passion. I used to bring together neighbourhood kids and tell them stories, when I was young. Ever since my daughter was born, I have been her story teller. We would sit for hours reading books about fairies and talking animals and of people with strange magical powers. Stories have helped me to bond with my daughter. But as she is growing up, I have realised, that soon she will be by herself, reading books on her own or spending time with her friends. How can I then connect with her, through the stories we enjoyed together so much?
And now I have an answer to that. "Story time with Rajat Aunty" is not just for her, but for all her friends, her age. Not just does it give me a chance, to be part of my daughters little world, it also gives me a chance to spend time with children. There is never a wiser company than little children.
Today I had eleven beautiful children for the session. Each one of them added a different flavour to the gathering. It does not matter whether they appear to be attentive or not, each one of them absorb every piece of information around them. And then they beautifully interpret it, in their own way. Some are silent observers, some like to talk. Some just cheer everyone up with their constant smile.
I do not know if we bring up our children or they help us grow, into better people. Because if there is anything we need to know about ourselves, we can see it in our children's actions, and hear it in their words. As for our children they eventually find their way in the world, whether we told them or not.
The story telling session entailed sketching, painting and even writing. I got 11 little masterpieces today. When it came to writing, some of the kids refused to write, because they did not know the spellings and some even copied from others, hoping to get the right spelling, in their friend's paper. Truth is none of them knew the right spellings, and that was not what the session was about. Since when did the 6 and 7 year olds get so self conscious? I was surprised a little but mostly saddened.
We forget sometimes that we do not discover talents in our children, we only nurture them. Talents are for the children to discover for themselves and to capitalise on it. Those are the little gifts with which God sent them on earth. We just need to do our job well.
We demand perfection from our children, to the extent of bullying them, when they are unable to be perfect or to be at-least better than the other kids we know. But the world is too big. The kids we know, should never constitute competition for our kids. Otherwise children will not make friends.
We are the gardeners in their life. Story telling is my way of showering the children with good ideas and thoughts. I don't know what they will make from it. It is for them to discover.
And now I have an answer to that. "Story time with Rajat Aunty" is not just for her, but for all her friends, her age. Not just does it give me a chance, to be part of my daughters little world, it also gives me a chance to spend time with children. There is never a wiser company than little children.
Today I had eleven beautiful children for the session. Each one of them added a different flavour to the gathering. It does not matter whether they appear to be attentive or not, each one of them absorb every piece of information around them. And then they beautifully interpret it, in their own way. Some are silent observers, some like to talk. Some just cheer everyone up with their constant smile.
I do not know if we bring up our children or they help us grow, into better people. Because if there is anything we need to know about ourselves, we can see it in our children's actions, and hear it in their words. As for our children they eventually find their way in the world, whether we told them or not.
The story telling session entailed sketching, painting and even writing. I got 11 little masterpieces today. When it came to writing, some of the kids refused to write, because they did not know the spellings and some even copied from others, hoping to get the right spelling, in their friend's paper. Truth is none of them knew the right spellings, and that was not what the session was about. Since when did the 6 and 7 year olds get so self conscious? I was surprised a little but mostly saddened.
We forget sometimes that we do not discover talents in our children, we only nurture them. Talents are for the children to discover for themselves and to capitalise on it. Those are the little gifts with which God sent them on earth. We just need to do our job well.
We demand perfection from our children, to the extent of bullying them, when they are unable to be perfect or to be at-least better than the other kids we know. But the world is too big. The kids we know, should never constitute competition for our kids. Otherwise children will not make friends.
We are the gardeners in their life. Story telling is my way of showering the children with good ideas and thoughts. I don't know what they will make from it. It is for them to discover.
Very well written Rajat...
ReplyDeleteThank you Neha.
ReplyDeleteIt's a good and pious effort . Why don't you post the result of the collective effort on FB and your blog?
ReplyDeleteSanjay Ji, I will do that too. Fr now those articles are for the magazine I am working on. Once the magazine is published, I will put up the articles from there into the Blog.
ReplyDelete