Writing 101, Day five: Hook ’em with a quote

Today’s assignment:  Hook ’em with a quote

Rabindranath Tagore says:

Don’t limit your child to your own learning, for she was born in another time.

 

Rabindranath Tagore is one of those personalities, who provided us with music, poetry and prose. I have learned a lot from his songs, poems, fiction and non-fiction. Today I feel it is time for me to honor him by using his quote.

As a child I asked many questions, but no one wanted to answer them.My eldest brother tried to stop me by using the famous quote,“curiosity killed a cat.”

When I read Tagore’s quote, I felt I wish I could ask him about certain things I was curious about.

It is true sometimes a child’s questions baffle us, we adults try to stop him/her, because we feel children’s knowledge should be limited to the alphabets, for they are too young to know more than the letters.

Once my colleague complained about her five year old son, “He is not cooperative,” she said.

“Why are you saying this ?” was my question.

She then told me, his kindergarten teacher complained, he refuses to participate in their classroom activities.

It seems the five-year old children were introduced to colors, each time the teacher mentioned a specific color, one of the kids was asked to run and stand on that color. When Jay’s turn came, he looked the other way.The teacher was upset and complained to his mother, that her son was not paying attention.

Jay knew all the colors and thought it was too stupid to run and stand on the color. This is one example, there are many others. This is where Tagore says, “Don’t limit a child to your own learning, for she was born in another time.”

Our world has changed a lot, back when I was a kid, we never heard of cell phones, today I see little ones with a cell phone on his palm. I’m awed by this, it makes me want to see what kind of messages are they sending to their friends.

Yes with every new generation we find kids know more than I ever did at that age. I’m not embarrassed for I know, our minds were limited to know what was available in our time. Today if we hold our children back on the presumption it’s well beyond their age, we’d be doing them a disservice. “As they are born in another time.”

……………………….. 🙂

 

 

Writing 101, Day Three: One Word Inspiration

Hope

Regret

Home

Choice

Abundance

Secret

Select one word in this list that speaks to you in some way. Have you always wanted to write about that one decision that changed your life? Are you a long term traveler looking for the right city to settle?

While tidying up my drawers, I was thinking about the Six prompts given to us today. We are supposed to choose one out of these six prompts.

Before going to bed last night,none of them were speaking to me. I was a bit disappointed thinking I may not be able to do this assignment.

When I finally went to bed, I made sure; I will not think of them; I knew if I did I’ll be up all night.

This morning after breakfast, I felt like fixing the clothes in my drawers; believe it or not the word ‘Abundance’ spoke to me, “Why don’t you write about me?”

“You”? I replied,”What can I write about you?”

Immediately, I went back to my childhood; One day I was washing my dress; I  felt very sad thinking,”why do I have to wash this dress after school daily; so I can wear it next day.”

The thought made me cry, my Dad always paid attention about me; what was I doing;why was I crying?He said out loud, “why is Ranu crying ,what’s wrong?”

My big sister yelled out, “nothing’s wrong Dad, she always cries without any reason!”

Dad said, “I don’t believe it, there must be something.”

He called me and asked, “Ma Ranu why are you crying?”

I said, “Dad, I only have one dress for school, I have to wash it everyday!”

My Dad was shocked,he called my mother,he asked, “Did you know Ranu has only one dress for school?”

Before my mom could reply, he said, “I want you to buy some material for her, give it to the tailor to get a dress stitched for her immediately!”

My mom bought the fabric to get a dress made for me.

The memory of that dress and my unhappiness came flooding in my mind. That day I never knew what is ,”Abundance,” perhaps my mind told me, ‘you should be happy with less.’

Today I look around in my room and tell myself, “this is Abundance.” I see clothes everywhere, I have a hard time finding space to put them away.

The fact that I cried for lack of clothes, must have reached heaven; God must have written in His favorite book; “I will never let her cry for lack of clothes,I will give her more than enough.”

I remember one of our dearest friend commented once, “Chaman you have so many saris; you will have to live a hundred years to wear them all!”

……………………………. 🙂

Daily Prompt: Honorific

If you pick one person to commemorated on a day dedicated to him/her alone, who would you choose?

I would choose my Mom. When  my Dad passed away, we the siblings were very young. My Mom took care of us and reminded us we can achieve anything we want, we only have to concentrate on our studies.

We all studied hard except, one of my older brothers refused to study. Even if my Dad was alive he wouldn’t be able to make him go to school.

My mom was an inspiration to us. She was a very pious lady and taught us never to spend time back biting, this is one of the things God dislikes.No matter how many good deeds we do, it will all be useless if we continue to speak ill of others.

She was very kind to her own siblings and her parents. Before she got married she helped my grandparents with the cooking . My mom had a sister eight years older than her, my mom was the one my grandparents thought would be able to do the work around the house.

Unattainable Birth

Rabindranath Tagore,has written a lot of poems,songs,prose, we Bengalis are fortunate to have a person like him. He has left us many years ago,we still remember him and adore him. The poem I am about to translate is my favourite.

“Unattainable Birth”

One day this meeting will come to an end,

My eyes will close for the last time.

The night will end and daylight will begin,

The awakened world will be followed by morning.

The business of the world will continue,

mankind will be spending their time with mirth and sorrow.

I remember all this while I look at the sky

I am watching all this eagerly.

Whatever I see nothing seems worthless,

Today I think everything that I see is unattainable.

Even the worst place on this earth seems hard to get,

The world’s most unsuccessful life is unattainable.

What I didn’t get can remain what I did get that too,

still give  me what I thought was worthless.

Rabindranath Tagore won the Nobel prize for literature. It is the first Nobel prize won by Asia. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)