An angel in disguise - Black Pari

In our childhood days, all of us had an imaginary character fabricated by our elders (mostly grandparents) to make us complete the "then" Herculean tasks of our lives like finishing food from the plate, drinking milk bottoms up, accomplishing homework everyday, etc.

These days the methods of parenting have changed and most of us are staying in nuclear units. Which means the interaction of our children with grandparents has been limited to video calls and occasions when either we travel to our hometown or they come over to our place.

This pandemic gave us the chance to spend quality time with our parents. For our children, it came like a blessing in disguise with the opportunity to live with their grandparents both paternal and maternal.  

So, we were visiting my parents' place. One day my 4 year old son was having a candid conversation with his Nani (maternal grandmother) which I happened to overhear. It appeared to be a very serious discussion so I did not want to interrupt it. At the end of their chat my son acquired this new concept of "Black Pari".

Over the next few days, I kept hearing about Black Pari giving him blessings(power) and small gifts once in a while. My son being a fan of superhero movies is obsessed with the word "Power", which I feel is superficial but I will let him be for now. Also, his tantrums while drinking milk and finishing his food were curtailed as supposedly Black Pari got really angry and took away all powers of the child who did not complete his work on time. 

I kind of got an idea but still out of curiosity asked my son one day "Beta, who is this Black Pari?" 

He first questioned me with surprise but then gave me a detailed description of his new found belief - "Mumma, you don't know Black Pari? She lives behind Nani's house and keeps monitoring all the kids in this area. She punishes the kids who do not complete their tasks, fight with other children, do not sleep on time, tell lies and disobey elders"

I interrogated again "So are you afraid of Black Pari that she might punish you?"

He chuckled and answered back "No! she is Nani's friend and only punishes the children who are doing something bad or not completing their work. But she also gives power and gifts to good children"

I was quite amazed by the fact that even though this fictitious character had been created with the motive of making him follow rules, it did not scare him. On the contrary, he wanted to obey so that Black Pari gave him lots of power and gifts as well.

This hypothesis I found very insightful because usually the color "Black" is linked to something bad or dark. But connecting it with a power which gives blessings and gifts is making it equally charming as any other shade of hue. 

I understand the technical glitches behind this concept of Black Pari if we observe from a critic point of view.

But it makes me really happy that my son is learning to follow rules in a very subtle manner which does not involve any kind of physical punishment. Also unknowingly he is developing this concept at the back of his mind that Black is not necessarily linked to something evil or of less significance.

It is so rightly said that grandparents are those Guardian angels who are just as vital as vitamins in a person's lives. 

P.S. - Please share your comments and thoughts. Also mention the fictitious character in your child's life in the comments section.

 

 

Confused Over Direction!!!

It feels wonderful tapping my fingers once again against the laptop keys to jot down uncanny thoughts on my favorite slate.

The confusion at this hour that keeps pestering my psyche lies upon a very basic question where I find us, the worthy citizens of India stumbling over.

Which way does our country want to move exactly at the moment:

Is it modernization or westernization.

Yes, the same point posed by one of our politicians some days back. Well certainly this is not any pro or anti party agenda for me.

Neither do I want to get into a discussion about what he exactly wanted to achieve with this.

But just the thought of choosing between “modernization and westernization”, made some wires twist within my mind.

The questions I am about to put are not my major concern but little milestones to the many concerns that would lead us to chose either one of the two facets.

To begin with:

Why is wearing jeans-tshirt or any western dress for that matter instead of conventional outfit being taken as such a crucial prospect today.

Even the press finds it such major news that it colors the entire front page to capture it.

And I don’t even want to mention about the nuisance created by statements given by our honorable politicians over this matter.

Let me put forth some more choices like, considering continental food and foreign-born entertainment to be symbolized as higher status components over desi ones. These topics may seem to be small-scale while talking about the growth and development of our country. But from a broader prospective, they portray the direction to which our generation is being steered.

The ease and comfort factor is understandable and trust me I don’t have a thing against globalization, but wasting our energy and money over choosing these, while the country is almost in the state of a huge turmoil from every visible perspective.

I wonder at times, did it ever occur as a problem this big to our freedom fighters that they should have worn t-shirt and jeans instead of kurta-pajama and then started off with the satyagraha.

Aren’t we ourselves being ironical here.

At one point of time, we want our country to make a mark in front of the world, and at the second instance we are rowing towards changing the image of our motherland and the little aspects that define our civilization with the foreign twins.

The time and situation demands our generation to rise above these little picks and concentrate on taking bigger steps for India to bounce back and with its own identity rather than with a westernized anatomy.

From where I can see, the beginning step for us should be striving to bring about a change in our education system, for starters.

Obviously the decisions need to be taken by authorities and at the Central administration level.

But why waste time protesting over the attire while the entire education hierarchy needs a makeover.

The other fundamental though major interests that flash my mind over which we need to work upon are:

Cleanliness, discipline and respect for each other.

Because with a head count this huge, the above factors seem to appear to me as a necessity, not a choice any more.

Our freedom fighters definitely succeeded in dragging out the outlanders, but something they were unable to get rid off, were the solid stains left behind in each and every field.

Then why not use our rights of living in a free nation and invest our time in something more reasonable.

These makeovers I am talking about, are not modern concepts, but just the etiquettes that already once existed on this land.

All we need to do is come back to our senses which have been swayed away by the flashy western world and try to rebuild our culture before it gets long lost.

Ours is a generation that stands on the verge of a major switch to be seen by our nation and the entire world.

It completely depends upon us that in the procedure of modernization, whether we want to open the gateways for western winds again or achieve back the grand status that India once possessed.

The glorious past and its examples have been employed by each one of us, only to win over in oral debates against the western world.

 Why keep the splendid possessions alive just in our thoughts and conversations.

The world believes only in deeds.  

Every step we take, each decision we make, will give our country a totally new face.

Do we want to cover the face of the “Golden Bird” with fallacies that keep hypnotizing our generation into making a choice of westernization over modernization. 

  

Let us think it over again and chose the direction with utmost precision.