Tiniest, littlest thing and such profound sorrow

I went a little further up the path today. On my way back just before I could cross the only house on the path I saw the tiniest, little boy walking ahead with a school bag. I caught up with him. I put my hand on his head so that he could look at me and I could smile at him. I was greeted by big eyes with tears running down them. I bent and asked him what happened. Controlling his sobs and shaking his head he said, no one drops him to school, he said this a few times and then I understood him. I told him its ok, not to cry, I will walk with him and asked to give me his bag, which he did. He also had a two rupee coin in his hand. I wonder what would be his reaction if I had asked to carry the coin too. After a few steps and some consoling, I pointed back to the house and asked him if he lived there he said yes, and that brought back his pain and again he repeated that nobody drops him to school. He was so tiny, I had to walk at a snail's pace to keep pace with him.

Then he poked a finger in a hole in his T-shirt and said something about his dress and his mother. With his attention focused on the Tee, he continued saying something, so I kept saying yes to acknowledge, only to realise that he kept repeating the same thing. So I bent down and asked him to repeat again. He was asking me if I would also come to pick him up after school. I told him I have to go to work and it won't be possible for me to come when his school ends. He was fine with that. He pointed to the end of the path and asked me if I will go off from there. I said no I will take a right when we reach the crossroad. We could here some barking from the direction I had to take. He said there are many dogs that side and they are saying bow bow. I said what to do but I still have to go that way. When we reached the crossroad I asked him where his school is, it was at the dairy, with very few cows left now, which is a few steps straight ahead on the path. I gave him his bag and said bye. He said a very crisp bye and started walking to the school with his back straight.

When I left him he had his own company for the small distance he still had to walk and he had stopped crying.

"Having eyes, but not seeing beauty; having ears, but not hearing music; having
minds, but not perceiving truth; having hearts that are never moved and therefore never set on fire. These are the things to fear, said the headmaster."

--From 'Totto-chan: the little girl at the window' by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi

The other day there was a report in one of the news papers that children (up to six years of age) these days greet each other with a kiss on the lips. An educational institute has decided to take this up as a serious issue . I will come to the school later, before that, the headline was quite interesting for its intended sensationalism. It uses the phrase 'locking lips' to describe the act of affection between these children. Parents and any adult (sensible of course) who happen to see children of kindergarten age on a regular basis must have at some point seen a child greet another by kissing on the lips. Who in their wildest imagination can describe it as 'locking lips'?

The school in question plans to do a workshop with parents to teach them how to alter this behavioural pattern in children. Not surprising that they find it questionable as one teacher put it as "an unusual adult-like behaviour". To alter this behaviour pattern they will be sitting down 4 & 5 year olds and somehow without alarming them explain to them why their behaviour is inappropriate. It will be interesting to see how this will be done without explaining the adult perspective to the children. What the children are displaying is not adult-like behaviour but child-like behaviour which is uninhibited by adult perverseness. It never ceases to amaze me how adults who were once children seem to lose the ability to look at and understand things from a child's perspective. It is not the children but the adult (teachers, parents, educators) perception that needs to change.

It reminds me of possibility of shameful punishment that teachers in my school used to threaten us with. To make us maintain discipline in the class they would give us a warning that if anyone was found talking, in case of a girl she would be made to sit between 2 boys and vice versa in case of a boy. I could never understand what was the big deal in sitting with boys. We studied and played together. What was the harm in sitting together? That was then. Educators now have to realise that children are changing. Children of now start making eye contact, indentifying/recognising people and generally taking in the world around them moments after they are born. They are smarter, mature and evolved much more than expected at their age. They are manifestation of evolution in human consciousness. Who knows, this workshop might just about turn out to be a learning experience for the educators in child-like behaviour.

Poga Sleep

During one of the philosophy classes I dozed off for the entire 2 hours. Nothing new that I dozed off I do that in most of the classes (never for the entire duration though). But what was a new experience for me was that after the class I actually knew what was discussed in the class. Another day, another lecture I was wide awake and trying to make sense of what was the discussion all about, but for all the sense I could make the Prof. could have been speaking in Hebrew. By the middle of the lecture I was so frustrated I wanted to jump out of the window, but the thought of a midair collision with Basanti, the Bitch kept me rooted in my seat. You see Basanti has this habit of jumping in from the window, walking over to the next row and making herself comfortable next to the wall. Though she was more into sociology than philosophy and as far as I remember always jumped in in the beginning of the lecture and left after it got over, I still did not want to take a chance.

What was I saying before Basanti interrupted me. Oh yes, about dozing in the class yet making sense of it afterwards. I got to resolve the mystery today. A couple of days back I did a Yoga Nidra session at home and felt quite refreshed. Impressed I thought I should first read the book and understand how it works. This is what it revealed, I haven't finished reading the book yet. Yoga Nidra is a state of hypnagogic sleep. The state between being awake and falling asleep and it seems it is the best state to input data into the mind. It gets stored and you remember it. I won't get too technical here, it is just that the mind becomes more receptive in this stage. As you relax in Yogic Nidra but at the same time try to stay awake, you tend to maintain a relaxed state of awareness. So I was in hypnagogic state in the lecture that day, I was sleepy but I was making efforts not to sleep, so I was both asleep and awake and no wonder I could remember what went on in the lecture. In fact these days I seem to be making more sense of texts that I read in half awake state.

Hope not too many ambitious parents get an inkling of this. BSY might have to stop all their other activities and start mass production of the Yoga Nidra CDs. No but seriously, to all those overworked, sleep deprived, tired people, this is wonderful. I did a session again today and I have a feeling I might turn nocturnal tonight. I sure do plan to incorporate it into my daily schedule.

Meaning lies in the minds of the readers

We were discussing how socialisation can be done through education in the class and our professor shared this account with us. It seems a lesson was introduced in some class text book in Kerala. The lesson went something like this. A child is taken to school by his parents for an interview. The principal asks the child his name. Then asks for the father's name, which happens to be a muslim name. Then for the mother's name, which happens to be a hindu name. Then he asks what religion should he put in the form for the child and the parents reply, no religion. The lesson ends here.

When someone like me reads this lesson, I think wow! that's liberal. Isn't it nice that children are provided the impetus to think, to create broad minds. But it seems that is not what the people in Kerala thought. The religious, especially the catholic community was in uproar. They saw this lesson as the Left's attempt at promoting atheism through education. Finally, owing to much opposition this lesson had to be removed from the curriculum. To none of us in the class it occurred that there might be any hidden agenda behind incorporating this lesson in the curriculum until, the Prof. mentioned the uproar it caused. She added that it could be a case of broad mindedness on the part of the curriculum developers in Kerala or it could be that the politicians better understand the power of education to socialise children to certain ideas or philosophies than the educators do.

That brought me to religion and the concepts surrounding it. Once I was chatting with a friend and we were discussing an a particular article which had to do with some religion. Since I don't bother with any religious identity, my friend asked me if I was an atheist. I said I am not. Why does one have to accept a religion to be a believer? Why can't one reject religion and still be a believer? But I guess it is important for most to subscribe to some form of 'ism'. To develop individual identity is to tread on dangerous grounds. It is safe to be part of a group, in this case believer or non-believer. For majority there seems to be no scope for a middle ground.