Getting a child's attention

On to my favorite subject. Children! They are so beautiful ; both internally and outside. It is hard to imagine how could the world that starts from such beautiful stage, tends to breed hatred, hypocrisy, war and greed. But discussing that is not my purpose today. Today, I only wish to narrate a small incident that took my attention while I was at a Cricket match organized by my colleagues.

This day, the school had some attendance as opposed to totally empty school that we have seen during all the other  matches. As per their routine, the junior students flocked into the lawns surrounding the playgrounds to have there lunch and play around. I think they were under the instruction of some teacher to allow the big boys, us, to play the game in peace. So far so good.

Someone noticed that few children are still too close and the Ball may just hit some of them if someone pulls a hard one which, is a routine on this ground. Especially this patch of lawn is visited many times by the fielders during a match . So I was asked to ask the kids to leave the place for safety.

I have been teaching for a while in the earlier days of my career and have a soft corner for children. Although I was not familiar with any of those kids enjoying their recess, I did not want to act a bully and drive them away like a truck wading through sheep on the highway. Some thinking was needed.

As I observed the children on the lawn, I saw couple of girls in groups forming circles, engrossed in sharing lunch and chatting their childhood talk. A randomized bunch of boys discussing the game as they observed us seniors play.

I thought that the boys were safe from the oncoming ball (if any) because they already had their attention towards the game and will notice it coming pretty early on to dodge it. But just to make sure they are into the game, I went over to them and:

Me: I hope you all are enjoying the game?
Children: Yess!

Me: You see that guy who is batting at the moment? He hits quite hard and almost here where you all sitting so watch out for the ball. Ok?
Children: Okay Sir.

I don't know why they addressed me with 'Sir'. I was expecting a 'Bhaiyaa' or something similar. The girls are still busy chatting. By then I have thought of something.

I went over to one of the two circles of chit-chat and stood facing the ones who can see the game happening. Other half were with their back towards the game and more vulnerable. I took time till I got some attention and asked with a 'real' smile on my face:

Can they see the game?

'Yes' came the reply.  

"But how will all these (I pointed) friends of yours see the game who are not facing it? And in case needed, the Ball coming?


Chit-Chat was temporarily suspended by the vulnerable half of the group and lunch lost attention for a while as well. I could sense the little minds thinking. As they deciphered the hidden concern behind that question, I was assured that point has made it home and I set on observing the expressions on their faces.

The chewing stopped and the eyeballs rolled towards the forehead without raising the heads. Then, food in hand was taken care of and a consensus was communicated by meeting eyes and nodding heads. Followed by some movements. Hands folding the lunch boxes temporarily, legs releasing themselves from the seated position preparing to carry their masters away from the threat. 'Threat' because unlike the group of boys, these girls were more interested in their chit-chat and sharing than in the game that, for them, must have seemed to be more of an inconvenience now.

I was glad that I have not registered a bad stroke on their budding minds about how adult strangers behave. I returned back to the team in pavilion after completing the task. Only I knew what I have gained extra today.

The amused silent observer

Recalling a chapter from The Story Of My Life - Helen Keller wherein she mentions what would she wish to see if, by a miracle, she is able to see the world for just three days, I understood that it is simply amazing to see how much of the universe around us do we do not see but only look at through our eyes. We are so used to the world around us and so busy making our days count that we only see what is needed to accomplish a certain daily chore.


Having read the account of how Helen Keller wishes to view the world if she were granted with a vision for three days, came a new insight into how we see the world around us. It felt as if everything I was looking at is renewed and filled with a freshness that I can perceive through this renewed sense of vision that now includes a characteristic of childlike delight of discovery and a sense of wonder and praise for those insignificant happenings as they happen. Although you cannot be an artistic observer at all times, that one time was something that made this post happen.

As I learned to see the observable world (again), it unfolded with millions of perspectives that earlier passed for nothing.

My limited vocabulary and amateur skills of self expression are insufficient to explain what it feels like to try 'seeing' the world form a new periscope of delight, wonder and discovery. So I feel better to use some examples.

The struggle of an ant carrying a speck of food around is a routine observation. But it is delighting to wonder about the fact that such an insignificant (in our world) creature has its own set of thoughts. I am unsure if they are actually 'thoughts' because it is we humans only that pride ourselves with that capability. But whatever, something is driving that creature towards a destination and the effort. Isn't this new discovery wonderful?

Have you ever observed a face ever so carefully that you can notice the mind behind the face doing thinking, calculations, concluding and the face just goes on reflecting all that? The smallest twitch of an eyebrow that changes whole expression of the face to reveal to you that some thought did not ended into a very worthy conclusion or a minuscule smile appearing for a nanosecond as a consequence of fond thoughts crossing the mind!

The ordered randomness in patterns of nature; trees swaying to the rhythm of cool evening breeze as if few wise men nodding in agreement to some deep rooted discussion going on.

Pollen strewn below the flower bearing trees shining in the morning sun telling that there is life happening silently.

The narrow continuous trickle of water from the edge of a fountain, wavering like a threadlike serpent, while others look at just a fountain. A few drops of water waiting to be fed by the mist of a fountain so that they can drop free to meet the ground.

Not only nature, looking at the man's creations, the society moving and living around, life happening,  busy people, expressing people, a lonely rusty bicycle awaiting its the owner, an abandoned vehicle counting its days, the cement jungle about to fade into the night.

Everything has an inherent characteristic of delight and wonder to the onlooker who is blessed to so observe.

Such an onlooker, the observer of the world and its events, the one blessed with this childlike sense of wonder is never bored whatever situation he is 'observing', he will always be in his own world. Amused at the little little-ings happening around him. He is blessed by the goddess of Black Pearls and needs no companion to amuse him.

Try to get into that mode sometime and forget your ills, perils, boredom, workload. See how it feels to be an amused silent observer.

The learning eye

Here, I mentioned an unconscious phase of life when we are unaware of ourselves being destined to be certain sorts of individuals.

But what happened when we were loud conscious about our being? What created us from then on? Were the decisions we took still ours? Or were they again orchestrated by a supernatural conspiracy that defined us in the first place? Do we still rely on the Strokes of the cosmic artist to keep on painting our selves with those finer strokes?

Let us put it this way that the cosmic artist was still at work, providing us with small glimpses of opportunities to learn. We were already receiving everything from the surrounding world. But during the unconscious state of our creation, we were gifted by yet another tool.

The learning eye. Eye being a metaphor for our all senses including gut feelings.

An individual is now not at the disposal of the surroundings to influence her. She is now able to filter out, from what she receives from the world, what she wishes to allow to influence her. She is no longer helpless in hands of the cosmic artist, the strokes of whom created her while she was in that unconscious state of creation.

The individual can now ask questions about, inquire about, ignore, get impressed by, be lured into, abstain from, get addicted to, and explore the experiences that she is receiving from the world around her.

When an individual observes the world around her, she is now, based on the foundation of her self created by the expert strokes of our cosmic artist, able to decipher these observations into different interpretations. Certain aspects of the world make a greater impact on her mind. Certain traits get fortified and certain are lost forever. An individual is able to observe certain stimuli with a greater extent of absorption and these stimuli result into a greater impact in herself than in someone else audience to the same situation.

That possibly is the reason why all the kids of a mother are never alike in all behavioral and aspects related to intellect and reasoning. Why all students in a class are not equally competent in all subjects. Why all are not equally sensitive to values and feelings of others.

Why Mother Teresa was hurt from the plight of the poor far more profoundly than anyone else? Weren't many people watching them earlier?
Why Mahatma was hurt by the discrimination of Indians abroad? Weren't many others facing the same for a century till then?
Why, while we were schooling, a difficult topic for others might, almost certainly, have been a piece of cake for us? I know it is true for many of us.

That is by the virtue of bent of mind that we acquired without even knowing of it. And as the time came by, we were able to utilize it to best of our wisdom gained till then.

I remember asking questions to my father about numerous things. Almost infinite. And being an experienced engineer, he knew the answers to all of them!
And I also remember listening to answers for hours.
I remember him asking me to hold the spanner in a certain way to avoid bruising the fingers if it slips.
I remember watching every smallest movement of his expert hands when he used to fix some nitty-gritty around the house.
And I remember imitating those small moves, slowly learning to use those small tips to perform exactly the way those trained hands would. Would hold a hand-held grinder so that the debris would fly away from my eyes. Would slow down a hack-saw so that the blade wont break at the end of the cut. Would hold a chisel so that it wont shatter when hit, and so on...

I remember observing drops of water falling through the leaves of a tree in the rain. And then, I remember asking myself how the tree keeps mostly dry around the base? The answer came from the eye only. Most of the leaves drop the water falling on them on a slightly outer leaf. Nature has arranged them so. Till the last drop falls from the lowest leaf on the tree, the drops have reached the periphery of a well grown tree. With some exceptions though!

Wondering the purpose of mentioning the above observations here?
It is to appreciate the learning eye that we are gifted with after we come out of the cocoonic phase of unconsciousness and start observing the world guided by our premature sense of observations crafted into us by the cosmic artist.

I wonder who provides us those small opportunities to learn and observe. May be its our cosmic artist still at work. But I do know that it is up to that learning eye that can now grasp and absorb what is being thrown at it from the outer world, but, now with an additional ability of discretion.

But the rules that govern this discretion have already been programmed into every individual when they didn't even knew it was happening, so that they are again, in a way, destined to be certain sorts of individuals.

Ironic?
Is it?

That's how Black Pearls are sometimes!