Children for Trees and Animals

Yesterday, Kabir went to Ulwe, Raigad district. Outside a D Mart store, he noticed a little boy, hardly five years young, standing with saplings, a baby goat and a board that said a sapling being sold for ₹30 for getting our urban area greener where this baby goat can prosper.

People were walking past him.

With the innocence & confidence of a five- year-young, he would approach them one by one:“Would you like to buy a sapling?”

Some bought. Many smiled & politely said, “No, thank you.”

But the little boy did not look disappointed.

He simply smiled, turned to the next person and tried again.

Kabir stopped and bought a packet from him.

The boy smiled brightly & said, “Thank you!”

Curious, Kabir asked him,

“How many saplings do you still have to sell & how long are you going to stay here?”

His answer was something Kabir, and perhaps all of us, will remember for a long time.

“Till 100 people say NO to me.”

Kabir was surprised.The teacher standing beside the boy then explained: “It is not important how many saplings he sells. What is important is that he learns, at this age, how to hear ‘NO’, accept it, & still have the courage to ask the next person.”

What a lesson! This also highlights the fact about the challenges in one's life and how one handles it. Some get stressed out over their earnings, some ignore the basics and some are unaware of the root causes in totality.

We spend so much time teaching our children how to succeed. Study hard. Come first.

Win the competition. Get selected. Achieve more!

But perhaps one of the greatest gifts we can give them is to teach them how to fail. How to hear NO without losing confidence. How to face rejection without feeling defeated. How to fall without being afraid of getting up again. How to understand that one rejection does not define their worth. Because life will not always say YES.

There will be examinations we don't clear, opportunities we don't get, interviews we don't crack, relationships that don't work, & dreams that take longer than expected.

Success makes us happy.

But learning how to handle failure makes us strong.

That little five-year-young was not standing outside D Mart merely selling chips. He was practising courage.

He was collecting “NOs.” He was learning resilience.

He was preparing for life.

Maybe instead of asking our children only, “Did you win?” We should sometimes ask, “Did you try again after you failed?”

Don't raise a child who is only prepared for success. Raise a child who is not afraid of failure.

A salute to that teacher. A salute to his parents, & a salute to that little boy who taught a grown-up,  a very big lesson:

Sometimes, 100 NO's can teach you more than one YES!

And in return we may also get more Trees, Mini Forests, smiling goats grazing below those Trees and good climate.

Lively LIFE