The Walk with my Little Mentor!

The walk with my elder son in the morning to catch his school bus is the best time of the day, as far as learning is concerned. It takes anywhere between 5 and 8 minutes (yes, I like the Fibonacci numbers) and probably follows Normal distribution. Notwithstanding the duration, this “period” is the happiest, most energetic and the most meaningful period of my day, during which both my son and I learn quite a lot.

He learns about how to run optimally so that he does not get tired and yet can catch his bus, when we are late. I, by no means, am a great runner, but I know the physics and the biology behind running and feel extremely obliged to pass on this subtle science and exact art to posterity. There is a host of other topics as well, like how not to get bitten by a mosquito, hiding places for snakes, pollution and global warming and philosophy in general. Needless to mention, this exchange of information and knowledge happens both ways. For example, I never knew that they called the dried nasal mucus from the human nose, “boogie” in the US, “booger” in the UK and "nosie" in India (God save thy nosy neighbor)! Very deep philosophical stuff indeed!

Couple of days back, I learnt something really important from him. Here is what happened. As we were going down in the elevator, I was trying to help him fix his ID card around his neck. The ribbon of the ID card had his “class-leader” badge fixed with a safety pin. As I placed the ID card, I noticed that the badge was upside down. I said, “Oh no! The badge needs to be fixed properly. It’s upside down!” He looked down at it and said, “Never mind! It’s at least fixed properly for me as I can read it just right.”

That was a revealing experience for me! I could not speak for a few moments, shaken by the depth of that statement which even its originator did not realize. That simple statement asked me to be aware of differing perspectives, all of which might be right. Furthermore, it told me that there are people, like my little boy, who could look at different perspectives and choose the one that serves them the best and most importantly makes them happy. And then the most obvious one – holding on to one’s views even though the whole world is against it! I understood that he was fine to hold on to that view as he thought it might be difficult for me to fix the badge rightly on his shirt as I was under time-pressure. Probably, he would have anyway fixed it later, if he needed to. He was ready to be against the popular view just because he did not want to cause any inconvenience to me.

I wish he makes it big one day! I don’t know if my wish will come true, for it all depends on his fate and what he wants to do with his life. My job is to encourage the right behaviors and discourage the not-so-right-ones, as I think appropriate and his job is to show me the right path to do my job right!

For the time being, I am enjoying the walk every morning. I look forward to it the whole day!