Allow me the bragging rights to say that the kids are warm-hearted, people-friendly and truthful. I say people-friendly just as you would rate a device user-friendly. They enjoy welcoming people home, interacting with them and sharing their stuff - though sometimes they go overboard with their attention depending on how comfortable they are with the person. Living in times when kids are more and more withdrawn into themselves owing to an active virtual life on smartphones and laptops or are too preoccupied with academic pursuits, this is quite refreshing. (Here toddlers in prams are seen playing on ipads while their moms stroll past shops in the malls - it keeps them quiet but what about their life beyond it and their need to observe and grasp from the world around?)
The warmth and friendliness the kids have inherited from V and the truth serum from me. I dont mean to say that I dont lie at all. I do lie to save my skin or face. But lying for the sake of lying is a strict no no. The kids in all their childhood innocence prefer to speak the truth especially as we dont whack them for telling an unsavory truth. Even in circumstance when we tell them to avoid speaking unpleasant truths, they argue: Isnt it wrong to tell lies? Of course, falsehood is gently imparted by us adults. For a while, on train journeys in India we used to profess that the children were still under 5 to avoid paying the half ticket - of course it was a task keeping them quiet on that. Until I read a thought for the day on a parent doing that at a cinema ticket counter and also until I could no longer pretend that they were 5- year olds. That's lying for a cause - of saving a few pennies.
One lesson from my primary school English textbook I still remember is that of George Washington with an axe - and how he cut an apple tree to test its sharpness and admitting to his father his crime. And how he went on to become the first President of the United States. That his honesty and integrity stood him in good stead.
Will my children benefit from these tales?
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