Growing Our Saplings Well!

It is a lazy Sunday afternoon and I am cleaning my room! Every time I clean my room, I promise myself that I would maintain it. And then, just like the new year resolutions which do not even last up to January, my room ends up in a mess.

And then when I am in the middle of the whole cleaning process, I find my old diary, my box of memories which is full of souvenirs and friendship bands, my toys and so many mementos of my childhood…

Cleaning your room 

Is like seeing off

A loved one who is 

Going on a war!

Cleaning your room

Is a nostalgia trip

Where each thing 

Takes you to a land afar!

The nostalgia ride makes me end up catching up with childhood friends, lamenting over lost relationships and calling my brother in with Cheetos and Coke! We then spend hours talking about our childhood days. How we harassed the neighbours, stole food and fought with each other! The entire afternoon is spent in throwbacks and the cleaning, well what is that?

I am sure I am not the only person who ends up like this! We all cherish our childhood, don’t we?

We all do.

And not because everything was right at that time; but because we did not know what was wrong. The biggest thing that affected us was a broken toy, the toughest decision was deciding between chocolate and strawberry flavour! Fights between parents were the times we slept early, we never had to support anyone or take sides. The biggest betrayal we ever got from a friend was that he shared his tiffin with another batch mate we didn’t like. We could cry out loud when we felt like. We could laugh heartily anywhere, everywhere! We did not have to fake hellos and say ‘nice to meet you’ to people we had just met!

Give me some sunshine

Give me some rain

Give me another chance

I wanna grow up once again! 

Irony! Irony! Irony!

How we wanted to grow up when we were little!

The amount of troubles this adulthood has caused us is not funny. All these life lessons, betrayals, heart breaks and losses have made us lose ourselves. The ‘what if’; the ‘I wish’; the ‘only if I had…’ ; these beginnings of sentences are the remains of the setbacks life has given us. But do we have a choice?

Sadly, we are not seeds.

We are grown up plants already.

The least we can do is nurture the saplings well. We can teach our kids that it is fine to remain innocent instead of telling that this world is a dark place and they have to adapt to its ways. We can teach them to be straight forward and frank; yet compassionate enough to not hurt anyone. We can make this world a better place for them so that they believe in the goodness of people, so that they instead of picking out differences to fight over, pick out the similarities to go along.

We can teach them that it is fine to like certain people and tell them; we can teach them that it is fine to not like someone and not go along well. We can tell them that it is okay to feel vulnerable and cry, it is okay to share secrets, it is fine to go against conventions, it is fine to be out of the box, it is fine to dance in rain when everyone is running around to seek shelter, it is okay if you don’t follow the herd, in fact it is important!

We can give them the power to follow their heart, make their own decisions, take risks, and live in the real sense! So that at least they do not feel the need to grow up again, at least they do not crave for their childhood as much as we do……