I feel like Alice in wonderland, because in an hour of lying awake in bed today morning, I thought of ten different thoughts. Starting to write one of them now…
Ideally I should write about my life in a linear manner, but my life presents to me like a collage of cross sectional memories rather than a longitudinal movie. Or as I stated before like a jig-saw puzzle with many missing pieces.
I wonder if people who claim to remember everything about their school or college really do so. But they do seem to remember quite a lot of it. Actually what stories you remember, make you who you are. Psychologists claim that you can redefine yourself by redirecting your thoughts and changing those stories. But if we keep changing our stories, we will end up getting confused about who we are. In fact I already am confused enough because I am not ONE, but MANY.
There are people, friends, who seem to be very clear who they are . They seem to be devoid of any self doubt. In fact most people want to project themselves as confident people who never question their thoughts or decisions. I myself being a self-doubting person was intimidated by such friends. Lately however, I have realized that this self doubting behavior has actually been my greatest strength. I doubt those who do not doubt themselves. In fact I doubt that they do not doubt themselves, they just choose to ignore those doubting voices.
Fortunately, my self doubt extends to my parenting as well. I have never stopped to question myself and never stopped searching for the answer to the question- what is the role of parents in a child’s life? I am someone who believes that children are equally intelligent and much sorted out as compared to adults. I really doubt the the assumption that parents ‘know’ what is right for their kids.
I however liked the movie Dangal and was therefore forced to question my belief on parenting, because here was a father being celebrated who forces his wishes on his daughters. Or was it that way?
What I liked about the movie that the man had courage to break stereotypes. Not only the daughters learning to wrestle, their brother (cousin) was cooking for them. In a society where the girls would have subconsciously chosen to take the easy path of doing what was expected of them, they could take the un-treaded difficult path. Isn’t it the parent’s role to understand their kids’ potential and show them that? Perhaps there is no right or wrong way of parenting. What matters is the intention.