Wednesday, August 31, 2005

 

A day with "little princess"

Nature has offered us ample number of beautiful things-both non-living and living. To name a few: the sunsrise, the sunset, the sun, the moon, the rivers & lakes, the valleys, the beach and so on among the first category and the flowers, the birds, the animals, the butterflies, the babies, the kids etc..in the second category. We can enjoy the living beauty in more active manner than the non-living, for the reason that they often respond to our actions. My personal opinion is that kids aged between 3 to 10 are nature's gift to mankind. Everyone of us had been a gift to others(who think like me on this) once upon a time.

I value this gift of nature highly, enjoy kids' company very much, never let go off a chance to make friends with them. Everyone does the same to certain extent. I go one step further and try to know more about the innermost feelings of a kid. I have learnt lot of new things in the process. One general observation is that the kids are inherently fair in their dealings, unless they are incorrigibly corrupted due to some external forces. Whatever they do is not at all whimsical as it appears with a cursory look. Everything makes sense, provided we have time and patience to understand why they do what they do. I have 3 young cousines (7 to 11 yrs old) and I have come to know a lot about child psychology from them. Hence the special interest in kids. Everyone of them is unique, yet I can make out some similarities in their thoughts. I know that there is no dearth for books on child psychology, but don't want to read them, for the reason that nothing is tantamount to the joy of discovering things on my own. Becoming too philosophical?..no, I don't want to be. This post is not meant for analysis of anything. I intend to explain one of my nice experiences with a kid.

It is not appropriate to continue without giving the background of this little girl with whom I spent more than half the day yesterday, I would not like to divulge her name though. I'll call her "little princess" henceforth. She completed 8 years of existence last month. She is in 3rd standard. She is fair, tall for her age, has hair style like that of Harry Potter. She is known to me since last 11 months, but only through exchange of smiles. Her father is supposed to be a relative of mine, but he has become more of a family friend than a relative. She is an introvert, hardly talks to people outside of her home, but quite generous with smile. She enjoys nature, music, chess, sketching and preparing artistic objects. Exactly 12 days back, she lost her mother who was young and beautiful, but unfortunately not blessed with health. Her mother was a violinist who had given a few performances in the past. It seems that when our little princess was informed of her mother's sad demise, her first reaction was "Now who will help me with my music lessons?".

Yesterday, I had been to her home to attend her mother's death ceremonies. When I reached there at 11:30am, she seemed quite normal, playing with her cousine. I too played with her a game of chess, teased her a little bit..We had lunch after all rituals got over. All of a sudden at about 2:30pm, she burst into sobs. Her grandmother tried to console her, but it did not help. By then people started coming near her which only made matters worse. I tried my bit too, by whispering to her that she could practice violin lessons and I would help her. I received a merciless 'no' from otherwise sweet and calm girl. Same fate for my offer to play chess. I was almost full of tears myself looking at her condition. Finally her father was successful in stopping her from crying, but he could not make her smile return. He made her play violin. I sat next to her, sang what she was playing and put 'Tala'. She was stumbling at a few places, sighing a few times probably due to memories associated with her mother. However, she seemed to be taking notice that I was attentively listening to her and trying to correct when she went wrong.

As soon as she completed one round of practice, I got an idea and put it across to her. I reminded her of my Veena, which she had seen during her earlier visit to our house with her parents. I told her that I would be happy if she comes to our house and listens to what I play. To everyone's surprise, she agreed to come. We had a nice ride of about 5kms and reached our house. Next 3 hours was one of the best times I've ever had. We were alone for about 2 hours there, as rest of my family was still at her house.

First, I offered her some chocolates. Then showed her my Veena along with all the accessories like the sound pick-up box attached and the amplifier. Explained her the setup as best as I could. She was very curious, asking lot of questions and seemed to follow my answers. I played a few short pieces of music, that made her eyes shine and face brighten up. She smiled and said that she was enjoying it. I was relieved to see her smiling. I must admit that her smile is the best compliment I've ever received since I started playing Veena. I was not too sure how my Veena sounds to others, though I enter a state of ecstasy just by tuning and plucking a string.

Next, I showed her my music CD collections and made her listen to a violin performance. She liked listening to it, but she wanted to listen to a Veena CD. After listening for sometime she even asked me to play the same piece!! I had not learnt all those advanced 'Krithi's and hence explained her my limitations. I also explained her some basic concepts that one should concentrate on while listening to a Veena recital. I do not fully remember what all I said or she said, all I remember is the light on her face and that I was feeling nice looking at her face. It was so difficult to believe that I was with the same girl who considered me to be a total stranger a few hours back. Her smile never faded even if our conversation had several mentions of her mother. In fact she was recollecting some nice things about her mother and seemed to be re-living those moments. That is not magic, that is the power of music. It is divine, it is soothing to the mind.

I cooked something for her (I rarely do that for anyone, even if I am fully capable of it!). I watched part of a movie "Shankarabharanam" with her. By then it was 6:30 in the evening and she wanted to leave. She said she would visit me often. I dropped her home and thanked God for gifting me a cherubic little friend.



Comments:
Aparna,
Its a really a geart thing to know and do.very divine. feeling very proud of u dear.Thanks for sharing this rare moment.
love
hema
 
hmm,
so you think you are capable of cooking :p
 
I don't think; I KNOW.
 
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