Roots n wings

Raksha Bharadia seemed to have made a few inroads into my mind. I have read a couple of more parenting books. Raksha Bharadia makes a world of difference in the genre. The whole genre has got a literary push; it seems thanks to Raksha Bharadia.

More often or not parents find themselves at loggerheads; frustrated, exhausted, and uncertain of the rightness and efficiency of our parental effort and skeptical of the potential of our children. We find them struggling with low esteem, loneliness, boredom, obesity, suffering from stress, burnout and depression, so says Raksha and having experienced a few of the above emotions I can safely say her study into the mind of a child has been right. But sometimes confidence building measure starts from a single step. I am short and a few times wished I could grow a few inches taller and on one such sulking trip my mom sat me down and told me one thing.”Small things come in great packages’ Indeed they do. Look at Charlie Chaplin, Sachin Tendulkar and Adolf Hitler.

The book is primarily informative and that is one of the reasons I enjoyed it for a book from genre that does not fulfill my literary appetite. There are loads of fun trivia and snippets of quotes from people who have made it big in life. There’s a bunch of interesting anecdotes and the book is high on the general knowledge quotient.

“One hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in or the kind of car I drove but the world maybe different because I was important in the life of a child.”

The book generates tips and guidance on the general creativity level of children and how it can be enhanced by the parent because every child is an artist. But the problem is how the artist in him remains when he grows up. That is where you the parent come in Handy. Issues like how is creativity defined, how can parents play a role in it or what are the shortfalls of the entire creative process that makes the child stagnate.

A child in his formative years undergoes high amount of mental pressure. After having researched extensively Raksha Bharadia has a made a note that Convergent and Divergent thinking have their place in life, but the divergent thinking abilities consist of very important cognitive component of creativity .Asking thought provoking questions, Build imagination skills and ask them for ideas. Involve them in discussions .If they are involved, there is no sense of alienation in them and for child alienation could lead to mental stagnation.

Parents can allow creativity, stimulate it in their child by encouragement or they can discourage it and stifle it. It’s their choice the author says .Choices when made right can reflect on the way the child is brought up. And then one day you find ten years have gone behind you, no one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun. Don’t miss the gun, don’t jump the gun. Just start the process in the right time when the child is mature enough. Why suddenly that I am obsessed with Raksha Bharadia’s Roots and Wings. Having read the book I know what my parents did right and realized that it makes sense after all, even if it never did as a child.