by Srikanth Chintala
I got a call from my 7 years old son’s school saying he was injured & another child punctured him with a sharp pencil (lead) just beside his eye.
I was preparing to go to my final exam of Law but I had to rush to his school along with my wife. Injury was bad & he would have lost his eye, he was lucky, he escaped.
I dropped my son & wife at the hospital and went to write the exam. I was under pressure throughout my exam and telephoned my wife soon after the exam only to learn that he’s okay.
I asked my son about the incident at bed time. He said, the kids were having discussion about punishments for wrong doings & the boy who punctured him said ‘god will not grant heaven and will punish after we die’. My son said, there is nothing after death, no one will punish a corpse and that the police and courts will punish us when we are alive. The other kid (9 years) argued about God and my son asked him “where is the god” and the other kid said he’s above the skies. My son laughed and said there is space, there are galaxies and many.. may be aliens, but no one will come to punish us. It angered the other kid and he kicked, slapped and tried to puncture my son’s eye!
After listening to the story, I asked him whether he is angry on the other kid. My son said “No, He is believing fake things, we have to teach him truth”.
Later on, I learned that the other kid is from a conservative family, he’s got sleep issues with fear psychosis and he also left the school. I remained silent on school and other kid.
I never told about gods and evils to my son or niece. Both are mentally very strong, rational & practical. After the incident, I only told my son to respect (or ignore) others belief even when you think it’s not true.
Is it not the time to reconsider the way we are upbringing the children? What are we teaching them by governing their innocent minds? We shall Support child’s growing independence. I always believed , every child is born free from predefined identities. Name, Faith, Race, Caste and so on. As Khalil Gibran said, ‘Children are born through us, not because of us’.
Let them think, analyse, learn and unlearn. Don’t put your mind inside them and cause disaster to their mental health their entire life.
SRIKANTH CHINTALA
Manastva 