Blind to Bounds

Food for thought & Merry Christmas

Come December and you see that along with the Christmas festivities, the spirit of philanthropy also gets an exponential rise.

Santa Claus , the iconic person associated with Christmas and especially with ‘gifts’ for the children are seen standing at various locales collecting charity—be it money, toys, chocolates, food items.

Writing a letter to Santa is a Christmas tradition going back to some centuries. The kids not just send in their wish list for toys or presents, but also promises of being a ‘good boy’ or a ‘good girl’. The more generous ones ask Santa to give gifts to the poorer and less fortunate kids.

What is even more exciting is that in many  countries, the Post Offices make sure that the letters they receive are replied back too.

Canada Post replies to letters in almost 30 languages each year including in Braille. Canadian postal workers volunteer to write back the replies to hundreds of thousands of letters received each year. Canada has a special address and postal code for Santa :

North Pole, Canada. H0H 0H0.

The other day I was moved to hear from a Paediatrician friend of the story of a 7 year old child admitted in a Hospital with leukemia. He mentioned that the ailing boy admitted in the hospital,  wished to see a white Christmas while there isn’t snow yet. The Hospital authorities did not want to disappoint the kid by their ‘regret’. Instead they pushed in all their efforts and finances to bring in snow to the hospital and even managed the boy to make a snow man by himself.

What made me wonder was that to how much length did the Hospital go to make a tiny face glow with smile and how much effort does the Canada Post makes so that millions of kids float in seventh skies when they receive replies to their cards from Santa.

Enslaved by my mindset, I can’t help think of our kids back home ( in India or Pakistan) .

Do our governments make any effort to make our kids smile?

Leave aside the government, do we even as desi parents really take extra care to keep our kids uphold their self esteem?

There is no two thoughts that as parents we really work hard for the kids—that they get the best education, achieve the highest grades or wear the best clothes in  parties. We even go extra extra miles to buy plots and leave bank balances to make their lives easy.
But in doing so are we really making them happy? Or ourselves?

Do we let them be themselves or do we make our own dreams come true through them?

Do we really talk to them as friends, or just command them  what to do and what not to do?

Before we ask the government or others in authority to take care of our kids, we need to take ‘good’ care of them too.
And good care certainly does not mean to dictate to them what we deem correct, but to guide them and let them realise their potential to the best.

I know all this has nothing to do with Christmas.

I just thought of revisiting the idea that if our kids will have a higher self esteem, the higher will be the hope to have a better future for us, in the years to come.

Just a random food for thought…
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“Merry Christmas”.

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