I SAW I LEARNT

Theme : ‘I Saw, I Learnt’ ( Blog about the right things that you have learnt from people, places and situations around you. )
So, here are some important lessons I learnt as a child


  1. Lesson of - Not showing off!

As a child, we grew up in quite a modest environment. I and my sister didn't have the luxuries, which most other rich kids in our school/neighbourhood had. Like trendy school bags, colourful pencil boxes or water bottles, comics etc. While it may not be a big deal, for a kid's impressionable mind it definitely were. I learnt over the school years, as I grew up, that my father worked in a bank, and was in a good position too, but when it came to our lifestyle, we lived a very basic life. I didn't understand it first, but I also learnt how my father had come from a tiny village ( from even poorer circumstances ), and struggled his way up the success ladder. Though, we were little resentful at first for his stinginess, we i.e me and my sister learnt the valuable lessons of valuing hard work, perseverance, making our own identity and most importantly valuing money and austerity. Thus, over time, I stopped craving those colourful luxuries.

  2. Lesson of - Passing it on!

I was little stubborn as a kid, and did at times demand this or that. Like I mentioned above my father was very strict, but at times my mother obliged with her little savings. Being the younger daughter, I was often given my sister's old toys to play with or wear her left over clothes, as she was growing faster than me. This did infuriate me a lot, as I wanted new clothes & toys too. My mother would explain to me, wearing clothes of an elder sister is not big deal, as we were same blood, came from the same womb. She would give her own examples of eight sisters in her family, where she had 5 sisters above her, and used to love and treasure their hand overs like some kinda privilege.
It made me see reason, and I wasn't as angry as before. Infact, when my sister was in college, and I was still in school I used to love wearing her salwar kameezes. Later on, when I reached college myself, I did start having my 'own' new clothes as well, but I used to like continuing the tradition of handing over my old ones to our domestic help who would lap them up. And believe it or not, since I used to complain throughout my whole childhood that I was never given my own toys, my mother actually bought me my first own doll when I had passed school. It was little funny moment and we all laughed over it, we still do :D

  3. Lesson of - Not Wasting!

I'll confess, I used to be quite a moody child. At times if I didn't like a particular dish that my mother cooked, I'd simply throw it away. It happened quite often too, as I thought my mother's cooking was quite bland. I liked tasty and spicier things. So, many times I did waste food. However, later on I saw many children on documentaries on TV as well as out on the streets, begging for food. These poor impoverished kids literally had nothing to eat, and there I was wasting food everyday. It started making me feel very guilty. Moreover, that food I threw was not even from my own earned money, but from my parent's hard earned. I had no right to throw it. So, that was an important lesson I learnt, not to waste food ( or other stuff ), instead give it to some poor needy child/beggar or even feed the birds.


  4. Lesson of - Determination to Fight failure!

I was really bad at maths at school. Many times I'd get a big red 'zero' on my maths paper ( err... pass mark of 35 or below is what I consider red zero ). I was good at other subjects and got top marks especially in subjects like English, Geography etc, but when it came to maths it was a big struggle. I hated it and never attempted to learn it. I barely passed through. It was mainly my good marks on other subjects, that'd prevent my teachers from keeping me in the same class for another year. One day my teacher called my mother and told her, my marks in other subjects wont save me during my HSLC, so better I get really serious and get my act together. My mother got hold of many tuition teachers, but I was allergic to going anywhere near them. So, in the preliminary exams right before the main matric exams ( barely 4 months away ), I got the familiar red 'zero' on my maths paper.
Something in my mind alerted me then, that only 4 months were left, and if I ever want to enjoy a college life, I'll really have to work hard. It wasn't a joke anymore. I saw, my own sister never had a problem with the subject, neither did my classmates. So, why only I was struggling with it. I needed to fight this weakness of mine, I decided, getting determined. But problem was, everything 'maths' went like a tangent over my head. I used to play with alphabets in my English subject merrily, but those same alphabets became a nightmare for me in Algebra/geometry. I'd think how on earth am I supposed to calculate with alphabets, when they are meant to write poems/stories which I loved. Oh...I had a huge battle ahead of me :-O

In the end, I collected all the maths question papers I could find of previous Matriculation exams ( spanning 7-8 years ). I tried to study the question pattern, and selected the most common questions asked. I made a list and started memorizing them. It was a risk, as I was concentrating only on those selected questions. It was also a gamble, what if those questions didn't come this time. But to my good luck, most of the questions were the ones I had memorized, and I passed with over 75 marks. For a person who was always getting red 'zeros', it was indeed time to party

  5. Lesson of - Voicing one's rights!

I was once travelling by bus with my parents. A very frail, old man got up from the front door. He stood on one side patiently, and nobody took any notice of him. I was also standing as the bus was a crowded one. One lady, pushed her way from the back of the bus, and started muttering something in Marathi loudly. She looked quite agitated. I was new in Bombay that time ( on my school vacations ), and hardly understood a word she said. Then she started explaining in hindi too, to the curious passengers around, that the people were sitting shamelessly in the front seats meant for ladies and also for the elderly. "Get up at once!" she ordered and vacated two seats. One she let the elderly man seat and the other she took herself. That time I learnt the etiquette of a Bombay bus, that certain front seats were to be vacated for ladies or elderly ( and the physically handicapped too ). Many years later, when I'm now settled in Bombay, if I see some people not vacating seats for ladies/elderly/
handicapped, I too act like that lady whom I observered many years ago ( albeit, in a little more polite manner ). After all, since those rights are there, why not utilize them


❤❀❤I am sharing what 'I Saw and I Learnt' at BlogAdda.com in association with DoRight
( Images Courtesy : Google )

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