TORAR DESHOR HADHU

 I  have grown up listening to stories. I remember asking mama to buy me a Panchatantra book to study during our half-yearly break. I have read several stories like burhi aair xadhu written by Raharaj Laxminath Bezbaruah. There are many benefits to story reading your vocabulary increases. You have a good hold of the sentences that you use when talking. It increases your creativity and your imagination power. Thus it is imperative that we let our small ones develop this habit of listening to stories from a small age. Even today when I visit a school I find out some time to be all by myself to surf through the books. I remember visiting a demonstration multipurpose school where the headmaster shared with us about the benefits of developing the habit of reading. The school has quite a  large collection of good books Paraja,Diary of a Wimpy Kid. I went to the school to interact with the Headmaster and then I ended up lending in this beautiful place. What  I feel is that every school in the country should have such a wonderful collection of books. Sudha Murty a wonderful story writer, Ruskin bond books like the Blue umbrella are excellent for our kids. In the present times, it is seen that children are so much busy being tech-savvy that they miss this part. Our days were different. We exchanged books with each other. I  remember hiding them under my pillow though my parents never said no in this case still at times they felt that  I read other books more than my academic ones but what I  feel is that is where my interest lies. The best part of my school was this good collection of books in the library that we had. Even now we see in some of the families young children are being raised by their grandparents. Most of the problems in society are due to poor childhood rearing practices. At a time when most of the parents both are working they get very little time to spend with their children at home. Giving a book to the child is not the way. We have to find time to read them a story at least one day a week before sleep. It is of utmost importance that we not only read them a story but let them focus on the words being used and the moral associated with it. I  remember this scene from a hospital where I  saw an old lady lying on a stretcher and her sons creating cracking joles around us. Often do we talk about value degradation in society but all of this can be reduced to some extent if we mold our child well with good values and take them to our ancient traditions which are a rich repository of knowledge. Books like Ramayana which shows Ram as an ideal son, the character of Sita and Hanuman, and the Pandavas in the Mahabharata the win of good over evil are wonderful depictions of how to lead a life well. Our children are digital learners. Especially in a post covid world, we have seen ways different than classes were taking place before it. We had a class called moral science in our school where we were taught values. Some of the thoughts and values are still inherent in me. If we work together we can shape better lives. I still visit book fairs and buy Hitopadesha and Aesop fables. Some of the collections in my library include the Ramcharitamanas, the Bhagavad Gita, etc. Papa always shared a story with me and my brother whenever he had to make us explain certain things. For me, I consider myself lucky to have such a  wonderful person in my life. This  I believe is the grace of the unknown in whom I have profound belief. The people I met shared with me some of the good stories from these epics. There is this saying in Assamese burha baah punabo nuari (When bamboo is old enough you cannot fix it ). It is true. So is the case with our children. When small we can help them have a better future and live with values. Storytelling is the best way to do this. When I visited Naamghar once  I saw a young lady with her kid. He was engrossed deeply in the cell phone. Too much exposure to phones is not good due to the radiation effect. It harms the eyes of the child as well, often do we see young mothers busy in the work leaving their kid with the cell phone. With time this becomes a habit and bad habits are very difficult to get rid of. So it is necessary that we focus on giving good values to our children when they are young. It is time we look back to the child-rearing practices to give a better future to our children.