Getting Hands On…

“Give a man a fish and he eats for one day, teach him how to fish and he eats for the rest of his life”

---

Dear Riddhie,

I had read the above quote in a children's magazine years ago and you must note this as a very important lesson for your life. It not only emphasizes the need for being self reliant but also underlines the importance of gaining necessary skills in life. We, as your parents would always urge you to walk that extra mile and learn to work things on your own than to depend on someone else to do a job for you.

With this thought, let me narrate how you got your first lesson in self reliance. It was the afternoon of May 1, 2011 and we all were camped at Sonipat and were waiting for the lunch to be served. Your mom brought you your regular bottle of milk and handed it to me to feed you as she was busy with her cooking.

I got you in my lap and held the bottle for you. Few minutes later, someone in the room switched on the TV and my attention was diverted for a while. Perhaps the bottle had begun to slip a bit and since you were not done, you decided to correct its position and raised your hands and held the bottle yourself.

Just then, your mom walked into the room and pointed this out to me and I had this flash and took my hands off and allowed you to hold the bottle on your own. The next few moments saw you struggle with the feeder and then readjust yourself to hold it better. Soon, you were sitting and then wanted to hold the bottle yourself.

I clicked your first endeavors to do things on your own with my phone and the following pictures and the video are the ones that depict you doing just that.

 

Getting Hands On

As I conclude this short letter of mine, you might be tempted to say that it was just a trivial thing and perhaps something that every child learns to do in due course of time. Well, let us put it this way that in life the process of achieving an end objective becomes more important than the final goal at times. There shall be days when you would feel as if you rule the world but the moment you let that go to your head and start bossing people around without actually knowing how the machinery under you works, chances are you shall lose your riches in no time.

The idea of putting this short incident in words was not to bask in the light of your new found art of holding the milk bottle but to tell you in as many words that no matter how trivial something appears to be, there is no end to learning and that even if we as your parents, could afford an army of servants for you, there can be no better worker than your own hands.

Hope you imbibe this. 

Love,

Dad.