With monsoon just round the corner, it’s time to bring out the hidden child in you to soak into the happiness of nature and its mist.
Everyone gets into the pre-monsoon preparations as soon as one hears it approaching. It starts from stocking grains, grinding masalas, to drying various frying delicacies that are served during a rainy evening. We ensure that all is in place before the first showers soothe the burning land. The awaited smell of the wet mud of the first showers encompasses the air. But do we really prepare ourselves to enjoy these magic moments that the monsoon season brings along? Or we just get busy only stocking materialistic things, completely ignoring the personal pleasure aspect.
Last week I happen to be a part of Summer Camp for the children between the age group of 8 to 14. It was an activity camp with several interesting medium adopted to get a child acquainted with simple yet interesting things in life. One of the activities included making a paper boat. All the participants were given a sheet of paper and were asked to make a paper boat out of it, which they would later take home and set it sailing during the coming monsoon. As a curiosity and to test my childhood memory I borrowed a sheet of paper for myself and decided to make a paper boat. Alas! I went blank. I had forgotten to make a paper boat, which once happened to be my primary source of enjoyment during monsoon. No wonder, the kids participating in the camp too drew a blank face with only a handful of them emerging successful. I guess their parents too had forgotten the childhood art of making a paper boat, just as I did. How could we expect the mobile-savvy kids to know it?
Every individual, irrespective of age or which strata of the society one belong to, has still a child hidden somewhere deep within. With the passage of time and day-to-day responsibilities, that child seems to have taken a back seat in most of us. As adults we don’t make paper boats any more, we think so much before accompanying our child to get drenched into the first monsoon showers. Many prefer to stay indoors during rains rather than take a stroll down to enjoy gushing of the water or breathe that dampness in the mud and its aroma all around. Nature has continued to bless us with same natural delight like it did when we were kids. What made us change then? Why can’t we today, just for once make a small paper boat and run across to the stream of water nearest to us and compete with several kids already playing out there. Why can’t we run faster than our children out of the house, seeing the first monsoon showers embracing the mother Earth from heaven?
Friends, it’s time to once again unleash that child residing in one of the remotest corner of your individuality. Set it free for once this monsoon and the child will help you see many more. Trust me, the stream shall flow as it always did during monsoon, the smell of mud shall kiss the air as it always did when get wet. So go out and breathe…and yes…don’t forget to carry your very own PAPER BOAT!