Hima Das our Golden girl! Wasn't significant to most of us till yesterday, now has made our heart swell with pride and mind left wondering on her simplicity and iron gut!
The vedio clips gone viral; her final winning race, her award ceremony, where emotions rolling down her cheeks, fills my heart with range of emotions everytime I watch it.... likewise, many of us are overwhelmed...too overwhelmed!
On podium standing and watching the tricolor, with our national anthem tune playing along... What sort of escatsy she must be going through in this moment of glory!
My heartfelt blessings to this lovely confident teenager!
I wonder how many of us can actually even imagine the level of this girl's hardwork, commitment and her dedication towards the purpose of this gigantic dream!
Often, such sensational victory and the story of toil behind it, inspires many. It triggers the thinking in many of us that how such extraordinary achievements are made possible by ordinary children...
We (esp. parents) start judging our own facilitation and our own kids in comparison! I am penning my thoughts down specially for this reason.
How Hima made this possible even though she didn't had privilege of all best eminities right from her childhood... like when fancy gym and fancy equipment to train with etc...
(This picture from National herald, speaks volumes, click on this link to see the article https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/india/the-dream-run-of-hima-das-the-golden-girl-from-assam)
So, what she has! What enables such dedication and single minded pursuit of purpose? There are obvious answers like her perseverance, discipline and all qualities we know...
I would like to throw a different perspective here; what she didn't had! What was absent which didn't prevent or deter her from dreaming and giving shape to those dreams. In my understanding these factors are--
1. Absence of loaded baggage of expectations from her providers (parents)
2.Absence of judgemental influence from her most trusted ones on her choice and her passion!
These are two prominent factor I see as common thread in all wonder achievers... just think about it, kids like her have biggest privilege; 'humble & honest support from thier parents.' Just a bit like potter making his pot! The force ought to be just there, not more; not less! which essentially means just being their for the child and not violate his rights by taking away responsibility and control from the child, by constantly telling what to do and what not to, limiting a budding flower by our aspirations, biases judjements.
In the quest of doing best we, the urban parents provide every possible facility to our children with unsaid expectations that he should excel in life. We enrol them in all sorts of classes, put in best schooling we can afford. We want to develop his personality, we want him to be successful. He is furnished with best equipment from best brands one can afford. We try hard and everything possible because we want him to excel in life, have respect in society...Unknowingly our precious child becomes specimen of our experiments!
If the child performs well i.e fetches medals etc we feel proud and successful! If not, then child feels guilty (&made to feel guilty/ incapable), our prestige is hurt, we are hurt! Even if as parents we don't say anything to the child, he knows; I have not made my heroes happy. This sets in a channel of negativity; lack of confidence (we name it complacency...), feeling of being at loss (this leads to dissatisfaction). We know these are dangerous emotions for self esteem and self belief in formative years...
'Child' whom we treat as our extension, looses on the opportunity of discovering himself, being himself to know what he likes, to do what he can be best! We parents 'Rob' it from him... We teachers 'Rob' it...Our urban society 'Robs' it from him... and worst part; child is blamed for not achieving what we want him to.. oh! no! no!... failed to achieve what was best him!
Then we go on to label these beautiful creation of God as 'lazy', 'stupid', 'complacent', 'not having fire in the belly' etc etc....! Some parents would even say “you get everything easily that’s why you don’t value it". Probably that’s absolutely correct! But the reason is not abundant availability of resources at disposal, but absence of opportunity and freedom to explore self!
Think about it!
The vedio clips gone viral; her final winning race, her award ceremony, where emotions rolling down her cheeks, fills my heart with range of emotions everytime I watch it.... likewise, many of us are overwhelmed...too overwhelmed!
On podium standing and watching the tricolor, with our national anthem tune playing along... What sort of escatsy she must be going through in this moment of glory!
My heartfelt blessings to this lovely confident teenager!
I wonder how many of us can actually even imagine the level of this girl's hardwork, commitment and her dedication towards the purpose of this gigantic dream!
Often, such sensational victory and the story of toil behind it, inspires many. It triggers the thinking in many of us that how such extraordinary achievements are made possible by ordinary children...
We (esp. parents) start judging our own facilitation and our own kids in comparison! I am penning my thoughts down specially for this reason.
How Hima made this possible even though she didn't had privilege of all best eminities right from her childhood... like when fancy gym and fancy equipment to train with etc...
(This picture from National herald, speaks volumes, click on this link to see the article https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/india/the-dream-run-of-hima-das-the-golden-girl-from-assam)
So, what she has! What enables such dedication and single minded pursuit of purpose? There are obvious answers like her perseverance, discipline and all qualities we know...
I would like to throw a different perspective here; what she didn't had! What was absent which didn't prevent or deter her from dreaming and giving shape to those dreams. In my understanding these factors are--
1. Absence of loaded baggage of expectations from her providers (parents)
2.Absence of judgemental influence from her most trusted ones on her choice and her passion!
These are two prominent factor I see as common thread in all wonder achievers... just think about it, kids like her have biggest privilege; 'humble & honest support from thier parents.' Just a bit like potter making his pot! The force ought to be just there, not more; not less! which essentially means just being their for the child and not violate his rights by taking away responsibility and control from the child, by constantly telling what to do and what not to, limiting a budding flower by our aspirations, biases judjements.
In the quest of doing best we, the urban parents provide every possible facility to our children with unsaid expectations that he should excel in life. We enrol them in all sorts of classes, put in best schooling we can afford. We want to develop his personality, we want him to be successful. He is furnished with best equipment from best brands one can afford. We try hard and everything possible because we want him to excel in life, have respect in society...Unknowingly our precious child becomes specimen of our experiments!If the child performs well i.e fetches medals etc we feel proud and successful! If not, then child feels guilty (&made to feel guilty/ incapable), our prestige is hurt, we are hurt! Even if as parents we don't say anything to the child, he knows; I have not made my heroes happy. This sets in a channel of negativity; lack of confidence (we name it complacency...), feeling of being at loss (this leads to dissatisfaction). We know these are dangerous emotions for self esteem and self belief in formative years...
'Child' whom we treat as our extension, looses on the opportunity of discovering himself, being himself to know what he likes, to do what he can be best! We parents 'Rob' it from him... We teachers 'Rob' it...Our urban society 'Robs' it from him... and worst part; child is blamed for not achieving what we want him to.. oh! no! no!... failed to achieve what was best him!
Then we go on to label these beautiful creation of God as 'lazy', 'stupid', 'complacent', 'not having fire in the belly' etc etc....! Some parents would even say “you get everything easily that’s why you don’t value it". Probably that’s absolutely correct! But the reason is not abundant availability of resources at disposal, but absence of opportunity and freedom to explore self!
Think about it!
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Smrati Mehta