The Competition

"Hey Sruthi! Check this out. There is an inter-college dance competition coming up. Solo! Shall we go?" Radhika asked her friend.

"Oh no, you know I hate these events... Leave me out," Sruthi replied.

Radhika pouted. "Come on, I so want to go... but don't want to go alone."

"I will come with you, cheer you..." Sruthi assured her.

Radhika thought but shook her head. "No! Come on, you also dance... it doesn't matter if we win or lose, right? Just for fun, okay?"

"I am not in form, Radhu... You know I haven't danced in a while," Sruthi demurred.

"Let's practice together, like in school days. Please, please, please, pretty please! Don't say no..." Radhika pouted prettily. Sruthi laughed at her friend and turned away without comment. "Won't you do this for your friend!" Radhika demanded, making Sruthi feel guilty. "Okay, okay..." she conceded reluctantly.

They started practicing and Sruthi was so glad of that! It had been easy to forget the joy of dancing in coping with studies. But listening to the music and flowing with it was a different experience altogether. She felt so refreshed! She hugged Radhika. "You are right, winning or losing isn't important. It is fun!" The two friends grinned in joy.

Before going on stage Sruthi said a small prayer, took a minute to calm herself. Radhika was next. She did a thumbs up. Sruthi nodded and took centre stage. As the music came on, she was lost to the world, dancing just for the joy of it as the steps flowed smoothly and gracefully.

She finished her piece and waited back stage to watch Radhika, praying her friend would do just as well. Radhika was a bundle of energy and she stunned the audience with her performance. Sruthi hugged her friend and exclaimed, "You were fantastic!"

When the results were announced, the two friends waited with bated breath. The second and third prizes went to some others. Apprehension gripped them when out of the blue, the judges announced, "And the first prize goes to Sruthi!"

Stunned the two friends stared at each other. The news hit Sruthi slowly but surely and she squealed suddenly, hugging Radhika. She ran on stage, ecstatic, to take her cash prize. "We loved your calm and sure performance. This is not to say that the others were any less, but you worked magic," the senior judge said.

Sruthi ran back to her friend, who had tears in her eyes. Sruthi felt deflated. She had been selfish!

Friends commiserated. Sruthi rose up to her defense. "Radhika is a fantastic performer. That day wasn't her day, but that doesn't take anything away from her!"

When Sruthi snapped at another close friend a couple of days later, Radhika stood up angrily. "Stop showing off so much! You don't have to keep rubbing in the fact that you got the prize instead of me! If it weren't for me, you wouldn't even have participated! And now, the gall of it. 'Not her day...'" Radhika said grimacing angrily. "What kind of a friend you are, cheating on me, trying to prove your superiority! Stop being so patronising!"

She stormed away, leaving Sruthi stunned and speechless.

The Untiring Runner

It hasn't stopped
this race
challenging each
at a constant pace

Persistent, merciless
never tired
watching impassively
without a comment

Ups and downs
taken in a stride
tripping tumbling
matter not a mite

Bang your head
pray, pass or kill it
Procrastinate, or rush
but it all comes to zilch

For it has practice
at running
For eons and eons
without stopping

It stops for us
but once
When we breathe
our very last breath.

Best Friends

All of seven years, the two went around together - within the safety of the colony walls, of course.

Shree would come from school, change, eat and rush to Nisha's house. "Quick, N! Why are you so slow?"

"Wait! I am just getting ready...!" Nisha would reply. Nisha's younger brother Anuj would request, "Me too, Nisha?"

Every other friend of N's was used to the little fellow. Shree said impatiently, "You and I are going to be doing craft work, N! What will Anuj do there?"

"He can hang around. I will show him how to paste," Nisha said smiling, the little mother that she was.

The three went into a room and out came the papers, the scissors, the colours, the glue. The little fellow giggled as N helped him with the glue. "But N! You are wasting time! And see, he has put glue all over this paper! And soon all our friends will come down to play and we wouldn't have completed our house!" For that was what they were planning to make.

"It's okay," said N with characteristic indifference.

"You don't have to waste time on Anuj! He can do it himself, you come here!"

Nisha felt mild irritation, but turned to the task at hand.

"Ni, can I paste this?" asked Anuj.

Nisha turned, but before that Shree said, "Can't you see Anuj? Ni is doing something important. She needs to concentrate!"

N's irritation increased. "A, you are making me waste time!" she exclaimed.

"But I don't know how to do it!" whined the five year old A. S snapped at him, and unhappily N followed suit. She couldn't understand who she really was irritated with, but since it was A who was disturbing her, and because S was her best friend, she turned on her younger brother. "You go out!"

"Mother!" cried A, not understanding why the otherwise helpful sister was being so rude.

But, N looked happy with S, and upset when the two had a fight. It was time to wean A off his elder sister.

***
A year later.

"Aunty, Ni is always rude," complained Raveena, another friend.

Nisha's mother frowned. "I will speak to her."

A while later, when N came home, she asked, "So you and R aren't friends?"

"No ma, it Shree and Raveena who have problems. But R is so bad! She carried tales to S about me, saying I complained to R about S! But it is R who was complaining to me about S. I didn't tell S any of it."

Mother shut her mouth. But N had more to add later, "R and I think S is very rude. So we have a plan. We will pretend to be S's friend and try to change her."

"Oh!" mother said. "And... how is that? I thought S and you were best friends?"

"I am not S's friend! She is very rude! She is always making people fight with each other. She thinks I am her best friend."

"How is that possible if she and you are not even friends?"

"We pretend to be her friend... that is the plan."

Not wanting to get into this mother said, "Okay, so the best thing is to be in large groups and not sit and do craft in the evenings. Play running games."

"I want to play! But S doesn't. And so she keeps making trouble. And you know ma, I feel very sad for her. Her mother doesn't even know what is happening because her mother is not there at home! She works all day."

This piece of wisdom had N's mother awe struck for a second. She asked mildly, to test her daughter's maturity. "So do you tell aunty about S?"

"No ma, S looks so happy when her mother is around that I don't feel like getting her into trouble."

Mother wondered if there could be a better way to be a best friend... even if you are not a friend

Turning a Blind Eye

"Oh my darling, my bundle of joy,"
They held the child close to their heart
Promising themselves they will forever
Cherish and protect this bundle so soft.

Routine, the key to maintain sanity
Trusting strangers to take care of the baby
As one rushes out to build own life
For the future of the little one to shine bright

The present marred by the stranger's hand
Probing, exploring where parents don't dare
Lost and frightened, the children shut up
Scared to even with parents open up

"Hey, look, you must take care"
Warns a friendly neighbour who dares
Only to be withered by a look that throbs
Defying and saying, "We know our job."

Don't turn a blind eye o parents dear
There are many beasts, we hear
Patiently waiting for a chance
Winning your trust perhaps.

The people you trust
A mask comes first
Hiding the beast
That lurks within.

A Little Bit of Sunlight

"Oh this heat!" we shut the daylight out, darken the windows, switch the AC on.

"My skin! Protect it!" when we have to step out we apply sunscreen to prevent tanning.

"Don't go in the sun!" we warn the children.

And it seems all this protection deprives us of Vitamin D, which leads to other bone problems. So now I have been recommended at least 15-30 minutes of exposure in midday sun to replete the Vit. D levels. To be done for a fortnight at least. This, despite the fact that I don't shy away from the sun, don't protect my skin with lotions and can be seen happily biking to places even during midday. What to say of those stuck indoors because of work?

A doctor once told me, it is a case of poverty amidst riches when I expressed surprise that Indians could suffer from this! Darker the skin worse the problem, it seems...

So take your daily dose of the sun. Yes, children still need to play in the shade, but just a few minutes of the sun can only be beneficial.

"Issued in public interest" :)

One Earth: Conflict

One Earth: Conflict: Xenophobia, conflict with nature's creations... They are unique to mankind, right? Wrong! A raven and a pigeon got into a fight. The rav...

Please Skip

Years ago, a friend of mine mentioned a photo she had seen of what human beings will look like in the future. Emaciated limbs and a swollen head because that is the part he will use the most.

According to a Times of India report yesterday, we still are grappling with well-fed bodies - and especially the children. Parents may by gymming and losing weight, but children are still "cute and chubby", to their detriment. Their self-confidence is low, as they are not taken for any school activities, and it is a vicious cycle they get into.

As a dance teacher, I find that when I ask children to jump when doing one of the steps, they don't know what the word means. I demonstrate repeatedly, but their body - not fat, but heavy - refuses to lighten up for the spring action needed to do the step.

While teaching Nagaland folk dance in my children's school this year, we decided to ambitiously teach class 2 and 3 children the bamboo dance. To avoid getting hit by the stick when jumping over it, it requires again that spring action, a certain nimbleness and agility. To my horror, out of the six girls - and again, four not even fat -  only 1 could execute it with ease. One of them didn't know how one jumps, lifting the entire body and tripping, instead of bending the leg at the knee.

According to the Times report, 60 percent of the children do not know to jump... There were other such statistics, but this one, I could so relate to, since I personally see it happening.

I am sure parents are struggling today with heavy schedules - tuition classes, tennis classes, why - even leadership classes. But where then is the time for free play? I remember running, skipping, elastic, hopscotch and the like taking up my evenings. While specific sports maybe good exercise, it is free play that gives us a lot of skills - right from how to manage our time to holistic physical exercise and even interpersonal skills. It is a time when the children are on their own, without parental intervention, dealing with peers in a fun atmosphere. What can replace it ever as a means to learn the basics of life and living?

My current mantra to my students' parents is to get their children a skipping rope. Even if there is no play area, that is a game that is fun, can be played indoors and yet give physical activity for the children.

We need good brains, no doubt. But all work and no play... we know where that one leads to...