Last night when my wife and I were discussing some event, the term "Bhrahamin" (a cast in India) was spoken. My daughter, who is about to turn 6 asked what it meant. I did not know how to explain the term without injecting the cast difference into her innocent mind. As I was struggling to find the right words, images flashed in my mind, images of 5-6 children standing, staring at each other, their games forgotten, then laughter silenced and wondering what cast the other child is. It was one of the least comfortable visions I have ever had.
My daughter eats, studies, plays, laughs, cries, does every thing that makes us wish we were children again. She does not know what a cast is. She does not know that her friends can be differentiated by color, rich-poor gap, language or anything. She only knows that as friends they play and stick together. When they fight they promise never to talk to each other again and that promise is kept only until they meet the next time.
Why, I thought, do I wish I were a child? Why, I though, am I wishing when I CAN? Why can I not shed the prejudices and other adulterants that my mind is polluted with? Especially since I "know" they are undesirable emotions, why do I still hold them so close? Is it the "sheep mentality"? Or is it I am afraid to be a non-conformist? Or is it that I have been nurturing these stupid ideas so long that I am plain terrified to let them go?
I can let these baggage go.and I will. I will clean my house, and throw away all unwanted stuff. Stuff that gives shelter to bugs and fungus, and I shall do the same with my self too.
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