Inviting Readers’ Contributions for  'Heart-Thoughts'

We invite readers of all ages to share their 'Heart Thoughts' with fellow Daijiworld readers worldwide. Any interesting and memorable incident, which gives you 'food for thought' or imparts a moral lesson, can be sent to us. 

Selected entries will be published on daijiworld.com as and when space permits. 

The article should be accompanied by a brief introduction, photograph, and daytime contact telephone number of the author. The write-up can be accompanied by relevant photographs. 

Every published author will be rewarded with a year’s free subscription to ‘Daijiworld English Weekly’, to an address within India.

Entries may be sent to: article@daijiworld.com

******************************

Jul 25, 2009

“To understand your parents’ love, you must raise children yourself”. I hope all of us agree with this.

I would like to share with you a small incident that occurred a few days ago. Renu is my colleague, who is settled here in Bangalore, and her parents live in Coimbatore, Tamilnadu. Renu’s parents left for their native place on Thursday and we went to the airport to see them off. In fact, her father had never travelled by air before and she wanted her father to have this experience. In spite of being asked to book tickets by train, she got them tickets on Jet Airways. The moment she handed over the tickets to him, he was surprised to see that she had booked them tickets by air. The excitement was apparent on his face,  and he was waiting for the time of travel and the thrill that came with it. Just like a school boy, he was preparing himself on that day and we all went to the airport, right from using the trolley for his luggage, the baggage check-in and asking for a window seat and waiting restlessly for the security check-in to happen. He was thoroughly enjoying himself and we too were enjoying watching him experience all these things.

As they were about to go in for the security check, he walked up to her with tears in his eyes and thanked her. He became very emotional and it was not as if she had done something great, but her gesture meant a great deal to him. When he said thanks, she told him there was no need to thank her. But later, thinking about the entire incident, I looked back at my life. As a child, how many dreams our parents had for me, have come true.

Without bothering to know the financial situation, we ask for cricket bats, dresses, toys, outings, etc. Irrespective of their affordability, they have done their best to cater to all our needs. Did we ever think about the sacrifices they had to make, accommodate many of our wishes? Did we ever express our gratitudes for  all that they have done for us? Same way, today when it comes to our children, we always think that we should put them in a good school.  Regardless of the amount of donation, we try to give the child the best, theme parks, toys, etc. But we tend to forget that our parents have sacrificed a lot for our sake, to see us happy, so it is our responsibility to ensure that their dreams are fulfilled and they experience what they failed to, when they were young. It is our responsibility to ensure that they do not miss out on all those experiences and that their life is complete.

Many a time, when my parents had asked me some questions, I answered back without patience. When our child asks us something, we have been very polite in answering. Now I realize how they would have felt at those moments. Let us realize that old age is second childhood and just as we take care of our children, the same attention and same care needs to be given to our parents and elders. Rather than my dad saying ‘thank you’ to me, I would want to say sorry for making him wait so long for this small dream of his to realize. I do realize how much he has sacrificed for my sake and I will do my best to give the best possible attention to all the wishes of my parents.

Just because they are old does not mean that they will have to give up everything and keep sacrificing for their grandchildren too. They have their own wants too!

Take care of your parents. THEY ARE PRECIOUS!