The tryst with toys

Photo: personal

My three years old daughter is very fond of colourful building blocks from which she makes beautiful and unpredictable structures. It has a combination of blocks of various sizes and colours. She spends hours to think of possible complicated yet beautiful structures with proper care taken for the symmetry and the stability of the structure. Even the colour combination also appears precisely chosen.

Seeing her grown interest in the activity I decided to get another set for her so that she can make her imagination fly higher. With the fear spread around, first I thought of purchasing online.  I searched on the leading shopping portals and found plenty of such items and then I researched and none of them could meet our requirement.  Our single requirement was that the item should not be ‘Made in China’. Though on many items the origin of country was not visible, the research could reveal that the products were in fact, ‘Made in China’. There were some products for which we had doubts, we ordered one of those, but when the product arrived, it was the same. We returned it back.

It was our personal view and decision that we shall not be using China made products. Not that it had something to do with G2G tension, but primarily because we felt that the carelessness in following the protocols during their research on corona virus had resulted in such an awful situation the world is in today.  Further, Chinese advances in various parts of the world encroaching land and water are malicious and unacceptable.

Fed up with online opacity, I decided to get the item from the store. After all, it was a matter of pride for a contemporary father to gift his daughter something non-electronic. And, my son had the luxury of having such toys and much more when he was in this age. Why should I let my daughter suffer?

I approached a nearby toy store. Raided the items and their packing like a police personnel, but couldn’t find one suiting our requirement. Few items were even tagged as ‘Made in India’ but when opened were the same from inside. I was just wondering, even after seven decades of independence we are not able to make indigenous toys for our kids? And it is not only in our country. When I had purchased few toys for my son during my stay in UK, surprisingly I had found the same label there too. ‘Made in China’ from UK with love? I still have couple of those with me. The reach of ‘Made in China’ products can directly be mapped with the reach of corona virus in the world.

I left the store in frustration. Then I decided to go to a bigger store where the chances of variety and diversity were more. True it was but again looking at the label was annoying. Luckily I found few Indian stuff but the quality of the product was down and the price was up. My ‘parental conscience’ didn’t allow me to adjust with it. Rise in price is OK but I should get at least a similar type and quality product. I did not give up hope and tried at another toy store. The story was no different there.  Now, the irritation levels were so high that I thought of tweeting the state of affairs to who’s and who’s of the country. Is this the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’? What have we done in this many years to ensure that we build everything from a needle to a ship in this country?

I decided to go back and purchase the available item from the shop near to my house that I had explored first.

‘What is my daughter’s fault if there are Chinese toys flooded in the market’? When my son can enjoy the luxury of toys during his childhood why not my daughter? Anyways, theoretically the government stresses too much on the rights of girl child. They have various schemes launched for them. In that pretext at least I am empowered enough to fulfill all the desires of the girl child.

I parked the vehicle near the shop. Suddenly I felt someone pulling my shirt gently from back. I turned and saw a lean girl begging for food.

‘Uncle, please give something. We didn’t had anything from morning’. She pointed towards two kids playing by the side of the road.

I saw that side. Two small kids possibly of the age of my daughter were busy playing with a small pile of stones. They try to put them in various shapes, one over other and were enjoying the outcome of their efforts. They were so happy playing with those ‘indigenous’ stones that the entire toy shop with sophisticated and imported toys looked a junkyard to them. This small event changed my entire outlook.

I came back home and told my daughter that the I have ordered ‘indigenous’ toys for her and it may take some time. Unaware of my state of mind, she remained happy as usual, ‘OK papa’ she said and continued playing with her building blocks. I thought, her childhood may not wait, but I will wait, we will wait!!!

the art of pampering

if you pamper your kid on the dining table
 kid will never understand the value of food
 if you pamper your kid while playing next door
 kid will never know the value of neighbourhood
 if you pamper your kid daily on the study table
 kid will never be able to read between the lines
 if you pamper the kid by giving whatever he want
 kid will never understand the meaning of necessity
 if you pamper the kid by accompanying him always
 the kid will never know how to move the next step
 if you pamper the kid by agreeing to whatever he says
 the kid will never understand the pain of denial
 but still you need to pamper the kid at many occasion
 pamper the kid when he loses in school competition
 pamper him to be disciplined, to respect opposite gender
 pamper him to accept defeat, to develop sportsman spirit
 pamper at the right time, right place and in a right way

Parenting in middle age

Being a father is definitely the most beautiful and blissful feeling and becoming father in the middle age is a heavenly thing. As per the unwritten norms of our society, marriage for a male generally takes place somewhere between 24-28 years and for a female between 21-25 years. As the couples reach their forties, they generally travel far from the parenting business and stay confined to fulfilling the daily needs of the kids which most of the times remain limited to the local purchases from the market.

the real income

Oh god give me the reward for my spirit

of my patience and my perennial grit

let the new flower blossom in my home

let me come out the failure syndrome

the wait period appear like centuries

embedded with deep mental injuries

there need be appreciation for my efforts

the prohibited luxuries, forbidden comforts

I know you will be coming down to earth

so you made me understand the real worth

let the fresh flower cast the magic smell

into the world with its miraculous spell

and make me proud in the years to come

that shall be my life’s treasure income

Delivery: from natural towards artificial

Parenting is really a tough job. Generally parents tend to perform it from their perspective and assume that they have done the job with perfection. However most of the times it falls short of the child’s expectations or the required level of accomplishment.  Mothering a child is still laborious as the clock starts well ahead of the fathering timelines.