Giving..

Last year, I fell sick. I was down with fever and for five days in bed without knowing what was happening around me. My husband took care of the children, home, everything. I am not used to it but was not in a position to do much. Got admitted in the hospital as it was diagnosed as dengue.

While, I was in the hospital battling the up and down of the blood platelets, my mom had taken my children. I was not able to see my children but I knew they were in safe hands and I was thankful for that.

After four days when I returned home, I was very weak and tired and before I could think of anything, my friends took over and provided me with breakfast, lunch and dinner for one full week and would have continued if I had not stopped them.

At the time I realised that I like to contibute to other's lives by offering support, but it was so difficult to accept when others want to do the same. Maybe, somewhere I was being selfish by not allowing others to feel the same joy I feel when I do things for others.

I have admitted to myself that as I love to give others, I would also like to be supported by others and accept it graciously.

'No man can be happy without a friend,
nor be sure of his friend till he is unhappy'
Thomas Fuller,M.D.

Capable of more..

Today, went to the school to collect the report cards of the children. Varsha's teacher while giving the report card and her worksheets mentioned that she wanted to talk to me about something. She told me that varsha had not done too well in the last session. When, I looked at her sheets she seemed to have done well ... 21/25, 17/25 etc. I mentioned that to the teacher and she shook her head saying,'she is capable of much more'.
When I told her that all this was Varsha's efforts and I had very little to do with it, the teacher advised me to spend more time on her.
I left the school wondering and still wondering what is it about marks which is so important? If I had sat with her, made her study and prepared her for the tests with the same format.. she might have done well(as per the teacher) .. would it mean that she has understood concepts or would I be conditioning her to work in a certain way to get marks. If a child secures the required marks does it mean he understands what he has done. Even after so many changes happening around us, we are still not able to change our mindset, our conditioning. Why is marks the only criteria which defines whether a child is intelligent or not?
It is time that we change the way we look at things, change the way we think and also change the way we do things. The least we can do is to change the way we work with our children at home by giving them acceptance, freedom, allowing them to make mistakes with the hope that they will reach out and work for what they want from life.