Childhood was so simple. There were fewer doubts, less
worries and more joy with so little. Ignorance is bliss. Becoming older has
just brought more questions about everything. It’s good to question everything
instead of believing it blindly. But at the same time it just keeps you away
from the joy. Lighting crackers was a joy as a kid irrespective of the quantity
and quality of crackers. But the questions like – why should we light crackers
if it’s polluting the environment? What happens if no crackers are fired? –
might make you more responsible human towards the environment but a dull, less
contended person at heart as you end up not having a full fledged celebration.
It would have been great if your joy was not bound by external factors like
environment and crackers. Freedom from everything is what one requires!
A recent experience of directing a drama with children opened up new perspectives to the mother and teacher in me. As I was pondering about the art of acting as someone in a story, it dawned upon me that children are born actors. Look around to see how natural it is for a young child to imitate others all the time, so well without any inhibition or filter. A child naturally lives in the other to understand what it means to be the other - it is profound learning, and hard work that they are doing. It is only later, through the years of growing up, we gain the ability to look at others as someone else from the self. Hence we grow the ability to empathise, that we can transform ourselves to feel what it means to be in others shoes and come back to the self - much like playing a role in a drama. As we grow, we invite many roles into our lives (father, mother, brother, son, aunt etc.) and juggle between acting in different roles. We act so well that we actually live in that role and ...
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