Paradise lost!!

Yesterday evening, I was returning home, when I heard these extremely silly noises somewhere behind me. I stopped, turned and proceeded to investigate. What I saw made me smile. A fond father was playing with his little baby. Junior was perched (quite precariously, in my opinion) on daddy’s shoulder and daddy dearest was endeavouring his utmost, with the help of these aforesaid weird sounds and appropriately accompanying actions to amuse Junior.

If one would care to observe the behavior of new parents (ignoring the activities of the baby for some time), I think that many of us would be frankly surprised at the ridiculousness and absurdity of some of the actions, the adults indulge in; supposedly to ‘play’ with the baby who I have no doubt, can make neither head nor tail of the absurd antics his doting parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles get up to.

These are the same adults who would scoff when asked to play Hide-n-seek or Tag-and-Run. They go about their business and work in a meticulous, orderly, planned manner, execute the designated tasks with precision and live their lives as an ‘adult’ should. They would feel insulted if someone insinuated that they were being frivolous or childlike and would rather that everyone respected them as grown-ups.

I believe that there is a ‘child’ in every single one of us whether our age is 10 or 30 or 50 or even 70. This child is immortal and indestructible as our soul. It manifests itself dominantly when we are young and sporadically in the later stages of our life when we play with babies or laugh when someone slips over a banana peel.

Stop and introspect for a moment. What was that period in your life when you were the happiest, felt most secure and were least worried? It was undoubtedly your childhood, assuming you had a normal one, of course. The greatest stress we faced were school examinations, the greatest responsibility we handled was safely getting our colony-wali cricket team the winning runs. Now we worry about Financial year ending, tax saving investments and project delivery. The difference is stark but inevitable. Naturally, as we grow older and mature, we must take up responsibilities as is expected of us.  

But it saddens me that many of us, as we grow older, try to consciously suppress this Child personality in ourselves and instead try to assume a socially appropriate grown-up one. In this process, we end up losing something invaluable – our childhood.

Stop running in this Rat-race for an instant and smell the roses on the sidewalk. Watch Cartoons or read Comics once in a while instead of CNBC and Business Today. Switch off that mobile phone and listen to the conversation of little boys and girls in your neighbourhood parking lot. They say the most remarkable things with utmost seriousness. Observe the patterns that motor oil makes on puddles of rain water. Imagine yourself (once again) as the Red Power Ranger or the Centurion-Air.  And most importantly, realize the fact that the key to our happiness is always simplicity and contentment and not material possessions.

We knew it when we were naïve and irresponsible but strangely, have forgotten it now, when we are mature and responsible!