" Please make sure the kids are 14 and above,S." I was planning with great enthusiasm my first batch of children at the project that conducts activity workshops with underprivileged children. Everything that I had to teach, share and impart needed an adolescent mind. That my one, clear belief. " Well, we do have children in that age group but can the younger ones come too ? ", the programme director thought we could unleash the kraken and stay alive .... duh ... How would I ever get a bunch of pre -teens or worse to be interested in such ....... elevated ideas as breath control, focus, mental visualisations and meditation. And meditation BTW.
Our first workshop planned with great gusto as first things always are. I was breathlessly marching into the room when S told me that our target group .. well .. hadn't turned up in as great a number as planned. " it's the heat wave " .. Damn Kolkata summers. Quick to read my disappointment S added that the younger batch was here in full strength, why not start with them. I gulped down my disappointment and entered the room. Only to have to mild cardiac emergency.
It was not a group of pre-teens. It was a group of teeny-really teeny-weenies. Who looked at best between 5 to 10. And 4 girls above 10. Quick to assuage my horror, S added that they aren't that young, it's the undernourishment. No, knowing that still didn't help. Visualising them in their underpants didn't help. Imagining they were older and bulkier didn't help. Their own unconditional acceptance of me and what I had to teach transformed me in a jiffy. That I was able to get such little children do pranayama with the joy of Sachin playing the field was a shock. They breezed through the class leading me to believe that the worse was yet to come. How on earth would I get them to sit through a guided meditation without cracking up ??
I realised children are much more tuned into their spirit with far lesser blocks in their psyche than us adults. I couldn't believe the absolute,unconditional sincerity with which they followed my instructions. Of course almost all of them opened one eye from time to time to peep around at which I promptly flicked my fingers in a shutter down motion. However two of the boys who seemed like they had mild ADHD needed a firmer hand. After the third time they peeped an eye open and glanced at me I made the motion of sticking my talons in my eyes. Worked like a charm XD.
And so it was that a group of pre-teens humbled and freed me from my preconceptions and misgivings that age is more than a number.
"A Little Child Shall Lead Them". Isaiah 11:1-10.
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