Mischievous Children

A poet says that children are living angels on earth. But any parent would acknowledge that his/her child was a poltergeist till it was above ten. The inborn qualities of any child on earth are nagging, mischief and playing pranks on others. So before comparing children to angels, one should know whether angels too were genii in nature. Tales abound about children who resort to mischief, or pranks or nagging for reasons best known to the little hearts. Inquires any poor mother about her child, she will unleash umpteen tales about her child’s mischievous deeds or things achieved by nagging. Till date I have vivid memory of my three-year-old nephew whose mischief denied me a most awaited letter from my friend. For months I had expected a reply from Mahesh who had been transferred to a remote corner of Assam. My little nephew Bunty heard me asking my mother whether the post-man brought me any mail. At last one day the much-awaited letter did arrive. Unfortunately it fell into my nephew’s hand. He dipped the letter in a bucketful of water and pasted it on the door of my room. Not only that! He stood at the entrance proudly with his tiny arms on his hips awaiting my arrival from office. `Uncle,’ he chirped. ‘You’ve got a letter from Mahesh uncle. Here it is.’he showed me the letter that was about to drop down from the door as the water used as gum had dried. By the time I removed it, the inland letter was full of blue smudges with faint trances of letters here and there. I was angry. But I could not box his ears. His intention was honest. He wanted to surprise me with the grand display of the letter.

Children are often seized with a desire to do something novel and attract attention or to get a pat by imitating elders. My friend’s little daughter Bubloo imitated her daddy by meddling with his shaving-kit. As she had no hairy growth on her chin, she amply made it up by shaving off her eye-brows. But instead of a pat on her back, she got a reasonable thrashing by her mother. Poor Bubloo had to suffer on two counts. On the one-hand while shaving she sustained bleeding cuts on her fore-head and cried in pain. On the other received beating from her father for her misadventure.

 Another friend’s little son who had just been dabbling in English Alpha bets, wanted to surprise his father by writing A to F on a slate. But he could not find it on time. He did not remember whether he threw the slate under the cot or under the big wooden box in a corner of the room while going out for play. So, he caught hold of his father’s passport on the table. He scribbled ABCDEF in the leaves of the passport book brilliantly and gave it to his father  and expected toffees eagerly. It took for the unfortunate father five minutes to understand what had actually happened. The little one had got toffees but in the form of beatings on his back. My friend had to postpone his visit to the States till he got a new passport.

 For mothers who are worried about their children’s pranks or mischievous deeds could find consolation by realizing that even gods were no better and mothers of divine incarnations too suffered like them. Prince Sri Rama, the incarnation of Lord Vishnu once nagged his parents Dasaratha and Kousalya for the moon on a full moon day. Little Rama was persistent in his demand and no amount of persuasion helped. As little Rama began to cry, the royal servant Bhadra brought a huge mirror and reflected the moon in it. Only then Rama relented.

The mischievous deeds of  Lord Krishna, another incarnation of Vishnu are numerous and all of them could not be recounted here for want of space. Yet, one will deserve mention as it contains great philosophical truth. One day, when a group of pastoral maids were having bath in river Yamuna, Lord Krishna, hardly twelve years then, stole their clothes. The God-head said that he would return the clothes only if they come ashore and bow him. As the maids at last made up their mind and stood up, they were transformed into sages, who were ardent devotees of Krishna in their previous births. This mischief of Krishna teaches that undue attachment should not given to the body, composed of five elements (Earth, water, air, fire and space).

Coming back to the mundane world, I doubt that the immortal cartoon of  Dennis

by Walt Disney is the inspiration for the little brats’ round the globe, whose innocent deeds land them, as well as their parents in trouble many a time.