Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every effort to teach them good manners. – Unknown

Above quote is not written by me, but I would rather like to learn to write such precise short one liners that have hidden in them a whole summary, what I thought should I write after reading it. I am a story teller so I extended it in the following way.

Ishaan, an average boy studying in a good educational institution, always falling in range of percentage lying between 70-80, sometimes 71 and often 79, is good in sports and wants to be an ace badminton player. For that he dedicates two hours of his day to the game and he is not affected or surpassed by the fact that what other children are doing around him.

On which mode of convenience they are arriving to school and by which gadget they are accessed to wireless connection such as internet and vocal mediums. The brand of shoes they are wearing or the lustre of their apparels and other additives to this basket of day to day society.

He is a favourite of his parents and he is soft spoken. He is saving a part of his personal expenses which he in his own words calls it stitched currency, that he saves in his piggy bank at the end of every week to help the poor for the purpose of education.

The Sunday mornings in the society where he lives are packed from all the corners because of the badminton game that he puts in with the children of the surrounding society and with the under 15 players of the city. And that is a treat to watch.

From childhood he has been taught that when facing any problem, a mountain or a miniscule, ask your parents for a worthy solution. These two people will accept you in every situation of life, whether fallen in a pit or standing alone at the heights of this life fumbling with own self. They will accept you with both hands open.

Ishaan, the super average person always maintaining intact sufficient levels of adrenaline to boast a cheer and he used that microgram amount smartly, never wasted that. And he has always been a delight to talk with no hesitations, surely a sign of confidence, words came out of his mouth always filtered and refined.

Children have this tendency to ask questions in such a simple manner, without making them up to get a perfect answer but instead asking them to get the right answer. They do get influenced by seeing all the mess in human relationships around them. And at times it is the duty of the parents to be answerable to their children, when they ask them regarding the corruption and other related social issues.

Parents should not escape their questions by showing them the luxury gateways to curtain their eyes and their thought process.

Ishaan’s father always had this telescope to see his footsteps where they are heading to, calculating them back and forth with Ishaan being oblivious to that calculation. Children will get bigger someday; it will be the day when their parents will be asking them to savour a decision for them. Children learn primarily from their parents, secondary from their teachers and last but not the least from their school mates and the ambience around them.

A good job or a healthy business and time devoted to family, Ishaan’s father’s simple math was to calculate happiness. His father always used to say to his mother, for my actions I have to be answerable to you people first, then to others because once the doors of this home close I have to face you people.

To his father, Ishaan’s failure has been a matter to look after, look at the road and to locate the possible reason for that failure, not completely blaming that on Ishaan instead.

They always monitored Ishaan’s day to day activities, and their only answer to the society was that they were being precautious; they want to make him a good citizen, a good human being, not just a good responsible son who will look after them in their old age. And if they succeed in this he will surely prove himself a good son.

One day Ishaan comes across a gadget, an updated version of his existing outing. He longs for that to his parents. They know he is working well with his existing one and they say a half no.

At the same time they confront Ishaan, “We know your needs and we won’t be pulling you back from the race in which this world is running and at the same time the race that is going nowhere. We want you to reach the finish line before the check post and the line that is invisible to many.” With a nod indicating a half yes and brushing his hair they left the room.

Ishaan tried to damp his desire for that gadget, but at this age desires wearing the clothes of dreams get the best of you. And it did, the money for the noble cause of charity along with some cash from festivities helped the purpose for him and he got the gadget. He was happy but his father in his inside was not. He waited for the right time to teach him and to make him see the thin line between needs and desires.

At the same time around, the watchman of their society, found his pocket running out of money to pay for his child’s school tuition fee. All the kids of the society came to help with their respective piggy lockers and Ishaan, he knew in his inside, level of his pocket barometer.

He felt small in himself. He thought of asking money from his father but he wasn’t able to gather courage.

A sleepless night with many thoughts, come next morning he along with his father went to gadget shop to resell the same gadget for the noble cause. His father didn’t stop him because he wanted to respect his decision as he came up with that from himself. He did sell the gadget and that too with a loss, but sure did he gain something inside. And he proudly joined the march to help the dream of someone’s wish to get educated.

The decision making process inside him took a seed that very day, and it will be flourishing forever now. He never ran out of facing tough situations as he always had two of his best friends along with his two very good friends; his parents.

The dining table conversations are the ones that go to sleep with you and are placed in the good part of your brain. Making children to confess rather than forcing them to tell the truth under pressure, is what his parents always worked on.

This thing travelled with Ishaan for the rest of his life. He always had the courage to tell the truth rather than defend a lie and coming up with the excuses.

The very friendship with the parents indeed helps one to find good friends in the real world. As friendship indeed is the sweet give and take relationship involving no physical exchange of currencies but it does involves dollars of sharing, pounds and euro of good emotions and last but not the least rupees of trust and good thoughts.

We watch Taare Zameen Par and find our eyes are filled with tears, 3 Idiots distantly reminds us the power of wireless friendship, Munna Bhai makes us visualise the road that one travels and ends on a good address, and numerous movies and incidents in our day to day life are the best lessons we can learn from or we should learn from.

Ishaan’s life was not pitch perfect, not anyone’s is rather. It’s just, some children with good upbringing and that to a sincere one takes them far in the unjustified race of this life. This may appears as advisory to parents but it is always good to start work from home and let the visiting guest to adapt that work and apply the same to their children.

Charity begins at home and that very home is indeed the factory that builds not manufactures the good human being. Children are indeed the best mimics and best publicist of habits, regardless of good or bad.