Spinach Leaves

I never really annoyed by the weather this much like before in Chennai. Summer is extending its presence for a longer period than usual months. Chennai loves summer that it never allows the clouds to pour on it whole heartedly. It was one of those hot summer evenings I was engaged with preparing the essentials for cooking spinach. Being the weather so hot, I switched on the AC and decided to work. Within few minutes, I had a phone call and I was supposed to complete few tasks intended for the day. Now the question is, who will spend the time to remove the spinach leaves from the stem.(Is there one word for related to the task, just curious). I was little frustrated as I had to finish everything for the cooking in the morning. It was getting late. Suddenly there came an idea.

My elder son finished all his HW and he was sitting in sofa relaxing in the cool AC. I thought he can be the right choice. After a lot of coaxing, he was ready to work. Soon, he was working with a bundle of drumstick leaves. He was slowly removing the leaves from the stem and put in the box. I was happy seeing the work and I headed back to my priorities. After a good amount of time, I completed all the work and came to the hall once again. I was a little irritated to see the removed stems and yet to be removed stems being together creating confusion. It was difficult for me to put my hands on and help him to complete. In few other bunches, he didn't completely remove the leaves thereby leaving them for the trash. 

I called him and started talking with him. "Honey,  I understand I gave you this work and I know that you are doing this for the first time. But what you should remember and take care is that you should remove all the leaves from all the little stems and also you should know how to segregate the completed and the non-completed ones. The way you handle the spinach leaves explains the kind of person who you are and the kind of attitude you have and I continued, by keeping them separately you also emerge as a good leader to keep the priority and the non-priority items in your control and also removing all the leaves from the stem teaches you that you should have a great attitude to finish the goal. He was listening patiently and nodded his head as a gesture of agreeing on the point. 

So, when you do work, if you do for the sake of doing, it will evolve as into a different person, say a person with a lethargic attitude, but when you do work with wholeheartedly that's when the person of great commitment evolves in his zone and he or she can definitely inspire and transform others. I believe even a small household work can transform your child work on their attitude. Teach them as easy as possible. 

Tamed Thoughts

It was one of those early summer vacation days, During the school days, I was too lazy to try any new recipe for the children. I felt like cooking something different as I promised them earlier. I never recommend or prepare any fried food for breakfast. But that day was different and I woke up early. Also, I was in a mood to prepare and taste a fried item. The initial preparation was all done. The cooking vessel was kept on the stove; the batter was checked for the right consistency; the oil was bubbling at the right temperature and everything was all set. I poured a ladleful of batter in the oil. The rice balls were swelling with pride. 

After few seconds, the color turned golden brown and the balls were ready to be taken out from the oil and find a place in the hot pack. I used a spatula for flipping the balls to ensure they cook well on both sides. Unfortunately, the oil splashed on my hands and I was making a big hoot to let my family know that I am up to something. After a few minutes for the second ladleful of batter also I tried to flip with the spatula. It was then, I sensed something was not working out.  and wondered what could be the reason. Then I figured out that the spatula was creating the problem. I replaced the spatula with a silver fork and tried flipping the rice balls. It perfectly worked out and I was able to finish preparing the breakfast in no time. 

A small shift in the use of right spatula made all the difference. Sometimes we try doing the routine and expect a different result. To tame an elephant the trainers chain them for an initial couple of years. Once the elephant is tamed, the chains are usually released. The elephant thinks that it is still chained and does not run or move away from its place. Similarly, we are often bound by our thoughts and we don’t aspire to try anything new in our life. We continue to assume that we can achieve anything by following the same routine every time. Some cannot handle a shift or change in schedule. In our work environment too, if we think about bringing in a difference in our everyday work, it will make our work interesting and challenging. 

Instead, if we keep doing the mundane work, chances are that we may get bored too easily. Avoiding the usual route to the office, if we try going by a different less traffic route, we may reach office early. But we never attempt to try an option as we feel very comfortable with our regular route. I just want to say that if we do the same routine we will get the same result. So why expect a different output when the input is always the same. Try to do anything differently but do not expect an immediate change. At least you are trying to challenge yourself and think in a different manner which will help you tap millions of opportunities. Invent yourself to be different. 

Summer Camp and a Realization

Children look forward for their summer holidays. As parents, we think thousand times what has to be given best to our children to make them happy and also to spend their time qualitatively. As a pressured mother, I too was looking options for summer camps which would fit right for my sons. Glad I found few and enrolled them which suited the best. They went happily, enjoyed and completed the camp.

One of these days, my elder son went for a chess class and happened to know of Archery class in a summer camp and he nudged me to enroll there. I registered him and he went to the class with lots of excitement. After coming back from the class, he wasn't happy. He told me the teacher wasn't teaching well and not using right words to speak to the child. I assured him, everything will be alright and he continued the next day.

The next day same complaint. I told him, "Child, if you don't raise up and speak for yourself the world is not going to take care of you. So next time if he using any word which bothers you, go talk to him". He was very scared to approach him at the beginning. Today he came back home and said, "I stood up and I spoke to him". I felt happy. 

Children should know how to disagree respectfully if something is not going okay with the teacher. The world is not comprised of kind people all the time. But if we know how to deal with people of all temperaments, we know how to move forward in life. As Adults, we should teach children to stand for themselves when something is not right. As a Mother, I felt happy that I educated my child to stand for himself.