MY LITTLE DUCKLING

‘My dear, failures are the stepping stones to success.' I consoled my little duckling. But nothing on earth could console her. She was crying and crying. ‘I couldn’t win, I couldn’t win.' It was the initial phase of my child’s learning at school. Anything falls on that wet mud had a great impact. So, obviously I was desperate when she returned home one day with a lot of burden. I was more than curious to know what caused her bad luck. A quick wave came to me all of a sudden. It was her sports day. And it was my duty to boost her up. So while dressing her up in the morning, as a dutiful mother, I just told her. ‘You must win. You should run well.' But I didn’t mean that, because what does a child in her kindergarten know about the seriousness of a competition. I just want her to participate.

When I came to the core of the things all my anxiety evaporated. So again I wore the dress of a dutiful mother. ‘My dear, leave it. It’s a silly thing. You have raised my pride by taking part in the competition. I can be proud that I am the mother of a great athlete.' But all those good words went in vain. Then I tried my luck by taking up the dress of a good teacher. ‘Dear, you know failure is the key to success. Each mistake teaches you something. Trust me, next time you will win.' But nothing fell on her ears. She went on crying.

Suddenly, an idea struck me. I confronted her with her most favourite choice, a story. ‘Dear, do you know the story of a great king who couldn’t control his emotions?’ 'Once, a sage came to the king. The king served him in a very respectful manner. The sage was pleased and asked the king, what blessing does he want to receive from him?' The king said, ‘I have all the fortunes in this life, but I will be happy if you advise me something to keep a balanced temperament, so that I will not become overjoyed in victory and saddened in failure.' The sage gifted him a ring and said, ‘keep this ring with you always.' Some words are inscribed on the ring. 'Reading this will help you to pacify your emotions.' 'The king was able to overcome his emotions whenever he read that. The king was happy'. Then my little duckling stopped crying, to take a breath and asked me, ‘what are those words?’ I whispered in her ear: ‘THIS TOO SHALL PASS.'

She looked at me in bewilderment and started crying all the more loudly. It seemed a tough nut to crack. All my efforts went fruitless. I thought as a mother I am a failure. That day she cried and cried and fell asleep. Next week the school’s open house came. We went with her to meet the teacher, a very pleasant being. She was busy discussing the performance of the child in the class. When I got a chance, I mentioned her about my child’s condition. ‘What!’ the teacher exclaimed in shock. ‘My goodness, I forgot to tell you, she is the gold medallist of the class!’ Then she waved her hand towards the notice board. We were shocked and on top of all confused. To clear my doubt, I asked again ‘who got gold medal from our class?’ as if the teacher had mistaken. The teacher burst into laughter and asked us, ‘go and see, it’s your child.' Then we saw our child’s name in the notice board. Under it was written ‘Gold medallist’. The teacher explained, ‘she came first in the running race. Later winners from different classes were taken to the inter school competition. There she couldn’t run up.' Then we got the real picture. The teacher added, ‘there is some delay in making the certificates. We will send it along with the medal hopefully next week.' I saw a cute smile spread on my little duckling’s face. Holding her brother’s hand, she said 'gold medal!'

We all came home sighing in happiness, at the pleasure we were likely never to experience again in our lifetime. Later that week she brought home an endearing shining gold medal. I saw her face bubbling with joy. Our ecstasy knows no bounds. I asked her, ‘my dear, how did you do this?’ She answered, ‘Mom, don’t you remember? You asked me to run well. So I ran as fast as I could.' Then she thought for a while and said, ‘but I couldn’t win.' Knowing that she is coming to that same old point, I changed the subject. I think innocence had been attributed to children in the sense that they have their purity in thinking things in a different way accompanied by their lack of knowledge. My eyes welled up. The thought that she gave that much value to my words made my cup of happiness overflow. It’s a fact that children can bring about strong emotions in people that make them smile, laugh, weep or even just stare in embarrassment.