Chronicles of an Amateur

I watched as my cousin walked into the house. He had a big smile on his face. He had reasons to be. He had come third in the class. He showed the medal to me. I congratulated him and wished him all the best for the forthcoming exams. Ditto with his mother. He rushed to his father when he came from office and told him the news. But he was not pleased and told him that he wanted him to come first in the class. “But appa, even Sharat has scored marks below me. Only Vimal and Raju have scored more than me.” “Appu, we should not see the people below us. We should always look at the people above us and get inspired” was the retort given by my uncle. Appu was first disappointed that his dad did not congratulate him, but then reconciled. I played a game of cricket with him to cheer him up.

The following weekend, we went shopping. Appu wanted a pair of shoes. His pair was becoming old. “Appa, I want a pair of shoes. My pair is getting old.” “Your old pair is in good condition, Appu. Lets get them repaired so that it is better.” “Appa, please get me Nike shoes. Sharat got them as a gift from his parents. He let me wear them. They feel good.” My uncle led him to a road side shack and repeated the oft repeated words, “Look at them, Appu. They don’t even have a decent set of clothes and you want a pair of expensive shoes.”

Appu replied back, “But Appa, only you told me that we should not look at people below us, but get inspired by people above us. So why don’t you get inspired by Tata Birla?” I gave a smirk which unfortunately, was noticed by my uncle. Appu got a sharp slap for talking back to my uncle. But the point had been made. That incident made me think.

Is it wrong for children to talk back to their parents? What was wrong in Appu saying that? He just repeated the same words to my uncle. Shouldn’t we credit our children when its due instead of saying crap, thinking that it might encourage them to study harder? What kind of twisted logic is this??

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