Illusion (Post 2)

Anand a 9 year old jovial child with lot of energies stayed in Mumbai with his parents. He used to jump, play, kick, dance throughout the day. The result was obvious, his parents were unable to control the energies and used to get frustrated. This would end up being some beatings or mouth lashings. 

Anand, was least bothered about such consequences and enjoyed being in his fantasy world. Even after 10 minutes of these drama in the house, he could be seen repeating the activities with same zeal and enthusiasm.

Those 10 mins after the lashings were quiet moments in life of Anand. Nothing was different at school too, He was the most Out-Standing (pun intended) Student in the classroom. Parents were being called regularly for complaining about the mischiefs of the little boy. This added to the rift between child and the parent at home too. To worsen the situation, Anand failed in the class test too.

Ramesh, Uncle of Anand, was called upon specially to help Anand and their parents to find ways to limit the 'masti'.  Ramesh was the closest friend of Anand and little Anand shared all his secrets with his best friend.

Ramesh while playing with Anand, tried to understand the mind of the little genius. He believed that the young champ was above a normal child and could create wonders if given freedom to live his own life. Ramesh was a teacher and could read between the lines. He sat down with Anand and spoke about his daily activities. He casually asked - "Anand, with whom do you play along everyday?"

Anand replied - "Mama, Earlier I used to play with mumma and pappa but since they are busy now, I have made many  new friends inside my books. Each book has a new friend. Would you  like to meet them?"

Ramesh was on the edge of his seat and took Anand near and told him to show his inner world. Happily  Anand opened his bag and took out books one by one. He first opened his English Text book and showed the first page which had pictures of various wild animals. He then explained that each animal  resembled the characters of "The Jungle Book Movie". So each day, one of the animals would come out of the book and play with him. Anand would become a "Mougli". and he had company of "Bagheera" or "Hathi" or "Baloo".

He narrated an incident in this regards too. One day when he had not finished his homework and Mummy gave a deadline of 10 mins to complete the book, then Bunny, the rabbit jumped out of the book, held his hands and helped him complete the homework before time. Anand was laughing throughout while narrating this story. 

He then opened his Marathi book and showed his uncle the picture of Railway train in  the poem - "Mamacha gaav". He started narrating that when he sees this picture, he travels time and enjoys various pleasures of being in the train whenever and where ever they had travelled earlier, He recollected all the travel wonders he enjoyed while travelling in train. Anand said, through this train, he travelled to Mama's village regularly and also to his other maternal Uncle's village often.

Ramesh was listening throughout. Anand now opened his Maths Book. Ramesh wondered which new friend in maths? Anand continued and said that the four line book of his Maths note book were no less than the "Snakes & Ladder game". He could see various ladders in there along with few snakes too and hence accepted he had difficulty while writing maths while dodging the snakes.

Ramesh understood the tender mind was wanting to move out and since he did not have freedom to do it alone, he let his mind travel places and bring out new stories each day. These stories were primarily "illusions" of what he had heard and seen through all these years. Ramesh told his sister, the need for someone being with Anand while he was studying so that the wandering mind could be concentrated at one place and work could be done. But this needed to be done through love and understanding than being very strict about the same.

Ramesh also happened to see the images drawn by Anand and to his amazement, they were brilliant. He encouraged Anand to draw more and put on paper all his fantasies and create stories out of them. Ramesh left for his village back in a few days. His work was done. Anand now got the needed attention of his Mother and improved in his studies as well.

Everyone has a small Anand within us with lot many illusions, what we require is someone to understand and direct the right path. Once identified and guided, each Anand would bring 'Anand' in everybody's life around. Let us all find Anand and guide him to success!!!

#Vishu's_Mindspeak

26/07/2020