Dhruv’s first love story!!

From day one of his playschool either I or his dadi ask Dhruv what happened in school and what teacher taught. One such afternoon lying on the bed Dhruv and his dadi was having their little routine chat and Dhruv came up with this story of what happened in school that day. In his words

Mein Nikita ko paari kiya. Nikita Gussa ho gayee. Main Nikita pe Gussa ho gaya

Simply, put – He kissed a girl named Nikita in his class and like anyother girl she got angry and Dhruv got angry on her.

Its so simple for him at his age. He liked someone and kissed her – thats it. How things get complicated as we grow up.

Anyways, hearing this his dadi burst out laughing and when I was back home from office I asked him what happened in school and he simply said “Kuch Nahee” (Nothing happened). Then my mom-in-law told me of the above incidence infront of him and I too could not control my laugh. The poor kid now thinks he did something wrong or funny and is not ready to say anythng of that.

An un-thought  reaction from us elders have put a block in his mind that he should not share everything us and be a little discreet about his own world.

The above triggered a long ago memory of mine.

I still remember I was about 14yrs – 15yrs old and it was Valentine’s Day. A boy from our class – a good friend of mine had brought beautiful red roses. Till this particular day I was ignorant about V’Day or the red roses thing. So I asked him to give me one red rose which he refused with other guys laughing at me. I really got mad at this friend coz he said he brought those roses for some other girl (who was not even talking to him.). I was calmed by another friend who explained the whole deal about the V’day and the different color roses for different kinds of LOVE!

My father used to ask me about what happened in school(The way I ask Dhruv!). So, I asked him do you know what is today or what Red Rose means on this particular day? And he said no. Then I explained him everything that happened what V’day means and which color rose is meant for what and so on. But by the end of it I was not so sure if he already knew about it. Sometimes, I used to think how ignorant my father is.

But now I think how right he was in pretending to NOT KNOW what I knew and giving me space to communicate what I knew, what I thought and how I felt – he just being a listener and giving his views sometimes. I never was afraid or felt embarrassed to speak about anything to my father.

Maybe, that is the way we should be with our kids!! Giving them the space. Being passive listeners. At times helping them in correcting their thought flow – mind you not forcing our thought process on them. Then maybe one day they will be good human beings with a thought process of their own.

This was Dhruv’s first stint with a girl! I hope there will be many more in the years to come!!