Instilling Values

Today I’m going to tell you an interesting true event of how my parents instilled values in me. My parents thought of a unique way to inculcate human values in me that other parents might have never thought of. They took me to such places which are a stigma on human existence to change my persona to be kind, honest, empathetic, responsible and self-compassionate. 

My mom took me to a slum area called Timarpur in North Delhi and showed me how poor people live life. I felt appalled seeing the difference between my life and theirs. I had tears in my eyes for them. How fortunate I am to have all the luxuries of life and how unfortunate and piteous they are that they do not even have the basic necessities of life such as food, clothes, shelter and education. The entire area was fetid and unhygienic as millions of insects and vermin were surrounding the people of the area. Children start working from the age of five or six instead of going to school and studying unlike kids of middle- and upper-class families. 

They don’t even have clean toilets and their common restrooms are very filthy and untidy. Open defecation was a regular scene everywhere. They don’t even have sinks or taps. They fill up a bucket with water then take the water out of the bucket from a mug and pour it on their hands. 

I saw it everywhere.

Proper showers are not available there either. Women shower with clothes around them covering their bodies so nobody can see them. Men shower in front of everybody with their underpants on and kids shower naked. This is the way poor people live. 

I approached a few kids who looked like my age. They said that they had never gotten to eat anything else except lentils and flatbread which is what they eat every single meal. One of the kids came close to me and touched my clothes, shoes and asked me,

 “My name is Raju and what is your name?”

I answered him humbly, “I am Veeir.”

He asked me,” Will you play with me and my friends?”

I asked him, “Which game do you play?”

He said, “We play cricket here.”

He took me to a playground where some boys were playing cricket. They had an old bat and a torn ball. They were using three wood sticks as wickets. They were barefooted and without cricket jerseys.

I could notice some of the boys were better players to our school team.

I bowled two overs and batted for about 5 minutes with them. 

My mom and I distributed a few toys to little ones, two big boxes of chocolates, chips, Juices and clothes to all of them and wished them good luck for the future. 

My heart was filled with kindness to them. I experienced the onerousness of poverty that day. Had my mother not taken me there I would have never experienced the significance of kindness to humanity. 

On another occasion school was on online mode during Covid-19 and a lot of my friends were cheating on their exams and copying the answers from Google. I attempted the exam honestly. My score was lower than my friends and they were calling me a loser. My parents sympathized with me and said that I would be a winner and my friends would be losers when school goes offline. The results were opposite when school started offline. I scored the highest grade, and they went down on their grades. I realized; honesty is the best policy.

Last but not least they explained to me the importance of being responsible. 

Sometime ago, I used to come back from school and would throw my shoes, socks and uniform everywhere in the house. My mom would scold me and tell me to clean it up. I would tell her I’ll clean it up, but I never would and never did. 

One day I had a tournament in school, and I was preparing everything at night, but I couldn’t find my shoes or uniform. I was panicking so much that I didn’t get much sleep that night because of worrying about it. The next morning, they were all in order where they always are. It was very peculiar. My mom told me she had hidden everything because I would never clean up or put anything in order. She wanted to teach me a lesson so that’s why she hid everything. I understood my mistake and apologized and promised never to do it again.