Lots of good reads out there about introspection, happiness, EQ, etc etc. But NEVERTHELESS, birthdays are special. That one day can cheer any poor or rich. It is just a feeling of being special. It is all about “YOU”. It is YOUR day. Often celebrated in numerous cultures and in traditional or modern ways, we just cant seem to think of a birthday without a gift. Whether or not you throw a lavish party or lit a candle and have your favorite Gulab Jamun at home, a gift is something we joyfully look forward to.
In the same context, we as parents have celebrated family birthdays with love and joy. As children grow up, their preferences of gifts change. Somehow we have been lucky to have never ever faced a social or personal embarrassing situation where they have thrown a tantrum rolling on the ground. It has always been a mutual understanding between them and us. Looking back, dunno how. So having a NO TELEVISION SET at home since we tied the knot, our kids grew up with lot of conversations, play time gradually inculcating a habit of reading. (Yes, I do take the credit of imbibing those efforts of reading into them..) My older one seems to be a voracious reader and can pick up almost any topic except for a few. He reads as fast as light and I have often wondered whether he has actually understood what he read. Often at times I had to ask him embarrassingly to explain what he read so as to convince myself. Ahh… So mean of me right?!
So, the Scholastic book exhibition at School did wonders. We have bought amazing, well chosen books mostly decided by kids as per their own interests. So dozens of them from Scholastic, many many others from per kilo priced book fairs, some as gifts and eventually a big truck load of books that they outgrew now as they are older and prefer to move on to Mr. Potter or Roald Dahl and so on and so forth. We then had a conversation and discussed benefits of now having a library membership than keep spending money on books that later have no place and that’s disheartening. So kids finally agreed.
In our search for nearby libraries and couple of visits, it struck me to visit the library where I spent my childhood. Loads of video tapes, Laurel and Hardy, Charlie Chaplin, National Geographic, Asterixis comics, Panchatantra, Robin Cook, Readers Digest, Enid Blyton and the list goes on. We called up the owner and he welcomed us with open arms and he somehow yet had my (maternal) membership number on his computer. Happily we decided to GIFT A LIBRARY MEMBERSHIP TO THE KIDS. We don’t remember buying them lots of gifts as a part of encouragement on any accolade but we have surely invested our time and money on any educative purpose or any form of learning.
So yes, that finally seemed to be THE PERFECT GIFT.
A LONG PENDING MEMBERSHIP AT THE LIBRARY!
“When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes.”– Erasmus
8.9.20