On September 5th, I wished my daughters - 'Happy Teachers Day'. My elder one, looked at me puzzled...shrugged and walked away. She has resigned to the fact that her mother is just not 'usual'. She will someday understand that they are my best teachers. I learn the power of dignity, silence and tolerance from my elder daughter. How? let me narrate an incident....
On one of those usual, emotion-packed evenings, when i asserted my misplaced sense of motherhood, yelling and screaming at her, she suddenly broke down - 'Ma, i am lonely! I hate my school...I am teased about my christian surname, about eating non-vegetarian food...I hate my identity! I could have sunk beneath the earth at this....collecting myself, i asked for details...realized that she had been putting up with this for months, uncomplainingly...I went to school, spoke to her teacher.....and as i walked away from her class, she looked at me for reassurance...I realized, I must begin to play mother now...
My little one....just two and a half....received a reprimanding small pat on the bottom for being naughty...She stared at me, went to the corner and screamed till she turned blue...she kept saying, 'don't do this'...it shocked me...I realized that she was trying to teach me...to converse, to communicate without having to be harsh...she was trying to tell me that she will listen, but only if treated with respect.
These were lessons I learnt and realized that I must have subjected so many people to the same harshness that my children were making me aware of....Happy teachers day kids!
