Assortment of thoughts on the 12 year old

After writing the article ‘Baby smile’ late last night, I went to sleep very late as the left over thoughts were rummaging my being for sometime. Today morning, I was woken up at 4:45 a.m. by Atul with a sweet kiss on my cheek and a baby smile, as he wanted me to help him with his Hindi portions for today’s exams.

Thus a long day awaits me today being a weekend. Reclining my plastered right leg on the tower of pillows most of the times, my movements are restricted. Obviously, the bed is strewn with pillows, blanket, books, mobile, phone, laptop and of course me on the edge.

Atul has been very kind to me during this time of trial - ‘Do you want this?’, ‘Don’t walk too much…’, ‘I shall bring water for you.’ ‘Please be careful..’ etc etc. He sets the table, clears it after eating, washes utensils too if need be and helps himself from the kitchen when hungry. But he also proves to be a child.

Even on the crowded bed, Atul fights for his share of pillows and blanket. In fact, he wants to use only those I am using. He wants to sleep with me at night and doesn’t want to understand that his one hard kick would jeopardize my leg. He gets thousands of doubts which need to be cleared with his friends urgently only when I am on phone. He is bored and wants to play games on the laptop only when I am seriously reading or writing something. He trails me wherever I go and sits in front of me.

Every time every day there is a big war of words between us but they are all momentary and meaningless. I know that he cannot take my silence, for he cries like a baby if I declare so. He is full of life unlike me. With cricket on TV on one side, ‘Jai Ho’ (at present) on laptop on the other side, hand swishing the cricket bat or tennis racket, speaking phone every now and then, he claims that he is studying studiously for annual exams. Sometimes, he uses ‘Sing Star’ for relaxation and sings those evergreen songs merrily.

He is bored of seeing the spiritual books around me and pressurizes me to read Harry Potter. He is successful though in thrusting me in this aspect. He wants to go to a school like Hogwarts during summer holidays, swish his magic wand and learn those simple tricks. His eyes glitter with excitement when he talks about the world of magic.

Well, he is a part of ‘awesome threesome’ who have conceived and written a book called FINDERS’ FOUR. A blog on this is long pending from me which I’ll do once they publish the book. In fact, even in this period of exams, he and his friend, Adi find time to think of writing and tuning a song all on their own in Adi’s guitar.

There are more to write, of course. He is making my life’s moments bright, beautiful and wonderful. In a subtler way, he makes me realise that God has been very kind to me. I do not wish to own him or possess him. I do not wish to thrust my opinions or dreams on him.

I always remember Kahlil Gibran’s words…

Your children are not your children
They are sons and daughters of life’s longing for itself
They come through you but not from you

I want him to dream on his own and enjoy his life as he wants to be. But I would be glad if he makes a positive difference in at least one life in his lifetime and be a contributor in a small way to the society that he is indebted to and the world he is kindly absorbed into.