The Language of Children

We had three children in the house. The Canadian siblings, 12-year old Dhruv and six-year old Sara, were meeting their cousin from India, 20-month old toddler Shaira, for the very first time.

Expectedly, each day was a circus of entertainment – lighthearted laughter interspersed with periodic tantrums and ready tears. Each little person had their individual characteristics and they bridged their differences in educative ways. They used their inherent negotiation skills and communicated in the unique language of children!

The usually taciturn and blasé Dhruv was ever ready to play the clown for Shaira: turning on her favorite nursery rhymes, amusing her in every way he knew and being ever the protective big brother. Sara vacillated between being the knowing elder sister (at bath time, ‘no missy, you can’t have the soap’) and sometimes regressed to babyhood when the new baby received too much attention. And then baby Shaira – she quickly became devoted to her older cousins, wandering about the house calling ‘Didi, didi!’ or asking plaintively ‘Where is Drewy?’.

It has been heart-warming to see the genuine affection that grew between these three children in just two short weeks. When the visit ended, good byes were said with heavy hearts before they left for distant corners of the globe. I know their time together has made a deep impression on each little mind. Video messages have been recorded and shared, names are constantly remembered, and inquiries periodically made. I like to think they have sown together the seeds of a deep and forever sibling love…

America's Leader

The leader of the most powerful country on earth has divided the world in two, using a scatological epithet to describe what he sees as the inferior part. If poor and colored are the criteria for lesser countries, then I come from one of these.

Six months ago, early in this presidency, I had the opportunity to meet Joe Biden, erstwhile US Vice President. In an anxious state of mind, I told him I was an immigrant and asked if I had made a mistake. His gracious words offered comfort to my troubled being. He said, “Thank you for choosing us”. And now this…

We choose this country because we admire what it stands for - inclusiveness and opportunity, freedom and fairness - all combining to create a safe environment of civility and dignity. This week, my chosen state has witnessed hate messages that are characteristic of the Nazis and the KKK. This leader has given sanction for the worst in America to surface once again.

I was born in a Hindu family and married a man with a white European father and a Muslim mother. Differences of country and color and creed have never defined the people in my world. But today I question my choice of home. Is this the place I want to live?

Their Story

Theirs was an unexpected and chance meeting. It was not a gradual growing together of like-minded persons, whose acquaintance may have started in the workplace or within a club – which might provide the comforting cushion of context. They came from vastly different worlds and diverse too were their circumstances and the events and experiences that shaped each one of them. One had been injured and hoped to heal again. The other had been long asleep and was ready to wake up. So they came together abruptly, in an awkward dance of muddled minds and confused bodies. They had a few things in common. They were synchronized and in harmony on some days, but uncoordinated and incompatible on others. Their haphazard collision culminated inevitably, in disintegration. 

But turbulence has been known to shift into tranquility and they could become fellow travelers adding meaning to each other's journey. They might be like the railway tracks, which travel together to a common destination but never join. Each track of tempered steel is strong and independent; yet both run together to carry a shared burden, each validates the other, and the two are inter-dependent in a unique and infinite way. After all, there is more than one kind of chemistry. Chemistry can create substances that corrode, or it might combine elements to ignite and explode, or it might be the alchemy that purifies and perfects. Theirs could become the alchemy that transforms lead to gold…