When children grow up the physical and mental developments
are marked by milestones. When we as parents see this we are happy. When my son
was about six months old, my wife was carrying him in her arms. I stretched my
arm towards him and said, “ Come come to daddy.” He immediately inclined himself forward to
come to me. I held him and carried him in my arms. This was the first time I had
seen my child understand a communication and react properly.
This was the first milestone which I noticed and really
enjoyed. This was besides, turning over in the bed, and swimming and crawling
on the floor.
Then later one evening we were all sitting outside our home
and since it was becoming dark we came
in. my son started crying. We did not know why. We had locked the door as we
came in. when we lowered him to the floor, he crawled all the way to the door
and started tapping the door with his tiny hands and continued crying. He meant
that he wanted to be outside for some more time. We were surprised as to how
effectively the child could tell us what it wanted. We sat out side for some
more time.
One day one of my friends came home and we gave him some
fruit juice to drink. The moment my son saw this he started to climb all over
the guest chasing the drink.
As he grew up we put him in school in the pre-kg. One day as
I was going through some printed book, he came and sat next to me. He started
reading the alphabets. He read, T…H…R…E…E…. Then it dawned on him that this was
a word he knew. With great excitement he said, “Dad it is three.”
The next word was also read, by him. He read slowly, V……….I……..T……….A…….L
He pronounced it as vital,
I corrected him. I told him that it was vai-tal. He said the word properly and
then asked me, “what is the meaning of vital?” This was the first time he
wanted to know the meaning of a word. Another milestone.
Later when he was in
10th standard, he wanted to make volleyball his career.
I counseled him, telling him that the chances of making it
big in sports was rare. I encouraged him to study well, as it was a time tested
method of regular income and play volley ball with happiness of a hobby.
He understood the logic, and did well both in academics and
sports.
This was a milestone in logic and maturity.
He graduated in studies and got a job and for the first time,
left Chennai and went to Mumbai for his career.
When we saw him off at the airport and were returning home
in a cab, every teenager who came before our cab looked like our son. I told
with my eyes full of tears to my wife that all the boys look like him. She nodded
as she was already crying.
I have in my memory all the wonderful moments which I son gave
me as he grew up from an infant to a man. Each stage of children’s life is
wonderful. They give us so much pleasure, just by being with us.
When my son was born I got a small wall hanger, with the following
words.
A child will make nights longer and the days shorter
A child will make clothes shabbier and pay - packets emptier.
A child will make the past forgotten and the future worth
living.
How true. A child makes us live our own childhood a second
time.
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