Why grow up??

Good memory you have ya, I hardly remember anything I did as a kid.

Was kind of a late reply.

Mine was a little quicker; I said

The trick is to never grow up. That way you don’t have to remember the things you did as a kid cuz you’d still be doing or atleast thinking the same things.

I thought more after she said:

Ah! How I wish to be a kid again.

Children’s day is not far; remember to let yourself loose this children’s day… Right now I gotta get some sleep... so bye good night! 

Little did I know then that I would be thinking about this chat while at bed playing catch till sleep was offered. It wasn’t long before I realized that I had just said something that I had never really believed. Suddenly I had told someone that I didn’t like growing up. Shocking. I really wanted to be a grown up. I was always treated like a kid. Something less than grown up - insignificant. I don’t know if it was my goofy way of talking and staying funny in an immature way or just my appearance, but I was always looked upon as an insignificant kid. I was always irritated when people called me or said that they thought of me as a kid, especially girls! Huh! Wait till I take my pants off, you won’t call me a kid then! 

Thinking about the insignificance of kids, it reminded me of an episode of Two and a Half Men; where Charley tells Jake “you’re a kid, it doesn’t matter what you think”

Well, I did laugh at it.

Staying over the thought of television I remembered a popular Hindi movie where Ranbir Kapoor gets yelled at for being too immature by a girl who later becomes his lover. Ranbir doesn’t retaliate in denial. He comes out and yells back at her admitting that he is a kid, and if trying to prove yourself right  or worrying about future is all that grownups do then he never wants to grow up. 

I appreciated that scene, but always thought responsibility made me happy.

Another such episode was from DraganBallGT. A scene where Goku, Pan and Trunks were looking for a DragonBall under water. Guku just takes off all his cloths and jumps into the pond. Pan gets grossed up looking at her nude grandpa. She yells at him and tells him that he is an adult and should behave like one. To which, Goku says:

If being an adult means swimming with your clothes on, then I never wanna grow up.

It’s just marvelous how almost nothing bothers a kid. Children surely are the little lamps that spread joy and love everywhere they go. An old story that’s still shared among people of Vasantapura is the story of Raaghu Bhattar and Shiva Swamy of Vasantapura. Shiva swamy and Raaghu Bhattar were big men of the village, one a devout shiva worshiper and the other a strict vishnavaite. They never saw each other and never entered each other’s temples. They were the modern day version of vasista and vishwamitra.

It was the days of the yearly village fest in vasantapura. The whole village was on the streets and there were just as many visitors from other villages; some were city dwellers from the nearby Bangalore. The scene was just lovely. Bouquets of Music and Dance performances in the village’s center square, vendors of a hundred kind occupying every inch of the road and women wearing cloths of every imaginable color, all saree clad; each like a traditional Indian woman.

 Raaghu Bhattar and Shiva swamy were very busy, talking, meeting, smiling and bowing at every visitor. They had to keep their contacts with the rich devotees. Though they were both happy and occasionally spoke to the same person, they never once looked at each other.

 It was after the dust had settled and evening prayers offered that everyone took to the center square again. A kid tugged on shiva swamy’s dhoti. He was crying. A three year old lost kid was lifted on to the shoulders by Shiva swamy who went about the square trying to make the kid from crying. He knew very well the kid was Raaghu Bhattar’s grandson. Yet he held the kid in his arms and walked over half the village. 

 To this day, the dwellers of Vasantapura speak of this tale of how an insignificant three year old melted the heart of a high priest who detested the other pillar of the village. 

Maybe that’s why being a kid is so nice. Being insignificant and not bothered by it, not bothered by position and status, and the least bothered about what others think of us.  Maybe it is the urge of proving our significance that makes us old; the conscious struggle to make a place for ourselves makes us lose the meaning of belonging.

 People generally see the dawning of responsibility or being able to take decisions or simple earning and feeding as coming of age. But is it really worth it? Is money and pride really worth the innocence and carefree childhood? 

Everyone grows up into an adult at some time. But that doesn’t mean the child in you has to die.

After all, Child is Father of Man.