SHORT STORY: CHILDREN- LIKE UNREAD BOOKS

Copyright@sharvancharitymission

By Kamlesh Tripathi

There were two college students who stayed in the same society. They both were in class XII, but in different colleges, and they both had working parents. And one out of them was very flamboyant, just like his parents, who only believed in telling the world how well they were doing, and even more, how well their child was doing in college. And, they had nursed, big ambitions, that their child will qualify into the best of professional colleges, from where no dream will be impossible.

The other student was rather subdued, again like his parents, and used to spend, a lot of time, in understanding the merit and sweat required to get into a professional course through competition, vis-a-vis his own capabilities.

And after clearing class XII exams, the subdued student took to the first professional course that he could qualify in, and went his way, while the flamboyant student decided to pursue higher and tougher ambitions based on his parent’s advice and his own overconfidence.

Some years had passed when the subdued student after completing his professional degree had taken up a job in a midsize company, while the flamboyant student along with his parents was still busy making lofty plans of conquering the world for himself.

He kept trying for the best institutes when he couldn’t get into average ones. He became very selective on what he wanted to do, without ever assessing his own capabilities. And a day came when he was neither in any professional college nor in a job, whereas the subdued student had completed half a decade of service and was now a manager in a big company.

Children are like books. And unless you read the book end-to-end, you will neither understand the narration, plot, nor the end of the book. Many parents are very good at reading only the first chapter of their child’s book and that too again and again, and that alone satisfies them beyond compare. They do not take the trouble of reading their child’s book end-to-end. And this creates a lot of dissonance between what a child can do and what he is told to do.

And, mind you the book, on its own, will never come and tell you, the narration, plot and the end. On the contrary you will have to make an effort to read it.

And to know your child read the complete book; read all the chapters and that will give a very clear view of his liking, desires, aspirations and capabilities vis-a-vis available opportunities.

And the book of your child is as interesting as any other best-seller you might be reading now. So, let it just not lie, in your library. Pick it up and read it now. And I’m sure once you go through it you’ll feel like reading it again and again, and from time to time.

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