INNOCENCE OF CHILDREN

There was a little girl. She was part of a family of five people. They were all good people. Her half twin and herself at 5 years were too young and innocent to be considered a part of this world. Each lived in their own world. The world of a child – Simple, Small, Beautiful and Pure. Oblivious to anything that happened around.

Her elder sister was at a ripe age of 10 and had left behind her innocent world for good. She had just taken a step in the real world. Her novice soul took in everything that came her way but she didn’t give much thought to their meaning. Because although it was a new experience for her to understand them, yet they were simply too bland compared to what she had lived for the past 10 yrs of her life.

But then came a storm. The sky roared and the earth trembled. Even the valiant sun hid itself. The storm unleashed all it’s wrath. It wreaked havoc on everything that it  touched.

The family was caught in it. The elder daughter could not run away. Neither could the mother.

With helplessness in their sunken eyes, these two people of the world watched as the storm ravaged everything.

The mother cried and cried. Any of her efforts were feeble against the storm. She knew that her family would be  the casualty of this disaster. The little girl who had just yesterday joined this world, could not comprehend the brutality of the world. The storm had shaken her upto the core. She hated the real world.

The mother and the children saw how the storm took them in one hand and crushed the ground beneath them through the other hand.

The Ground, the Firmness, the Strength, the Support  -  ‘ The father’  could see that he was ‘Living his End’. The early  premonition of the impending storm had sapped the father’s will through the years. But in his last moments, when the piercing Gaze of the Storm  illuminated his eyes, he could See. He saw that even with all his might he could not have defeated this force. The force was invincible and his end inevitable. Perhaps as this was the Will of the Supreme Force.

The  realization  lifted  all  the  burden  from  him  and  his soul  became light – Light as a feather. The storm eased his grip on the father and his feather like soul slipped right through. The soul went up and up. On his way up he gave one last kiss to the Mother and to his beloved daughter who knew that this was their last moment with him.

He turned for his other two daughters and saw that they were still in their own world. A world wherein they ruled a kingdom. The forts and gates of which kingdom were so high and were shielded by such a mysterious power that even the Storm could not breakthrough.

He knocked on the gates and the mighty gates opened. He was surprised by what he saw inside! These two little Queens had tamed the Storm! The Storm was their flying carpet and they were going on a ride. They were flying to a magical world. The Father hopped right on to the carpet between his two little Queens. He was amazed at the Brilliance, Magnificence and the Innocence of the children’s world. His children’s  world! It was a world where there was no harnessing the reigns of imagination. It was a world of unconceivable genuineness. It was a world of impeccable whiteness. He was grateful at having a peek in such a world.

At last his call came and he kissed the little queens farewell. They heartily waved back goodbye to their father and wished him luck for where he was headed.

The queens saw the Feather lift up in the sky, up and up until it disappeared.

The Innocence of Children, children who never thought the storm as a disaster but as a friend to fly with. According to them the storm was an angel cloaked in a dark suit so that his stupendous light would not blind the people and he had come to take their father to heaven which as relayed by the angel was a better place than earth.

The children also wanted to see this better place and hoped that they’d get to visit their father someday.

On the other hand the people of this world saw the storm as a theif who stole the father away. For them it was a disaster that would change the entire direction of their life and would affect everything from petty to paramount.

Now 17 yrs have passed this precedent. The little girl has grown up. Her half twin has grown up. The elder sister has grown up and  the Mother is knocking at the door of old age.

The girl is pondering over this incidence of past and is wondering that which was the true face of the Storm.

‘Was she a fool to have not seen that her father was leaving her forever. Did she not realize that she would never know what a Father’s  love is? Never know the Warmth of a father’s hug? Never know the Care of a father’s heart? Never know the Shelter of a father’s strength? Never know the Wisdom of a father’s guidance?  Never know a Father at all !!

How  foolish  of  a  child to be blind to all this!’ She exhumed.

Realizing everything that she had not realized back then, she cried. She cried for the fact that she was so young when he died, that she has almost no memories of him, even his face has not been retained in her memory! She cried for the fact that to remember what her Father looked like, she has to help herself with a photo.

But after the waterworks turned off, she thought over her life till now, and she felt like she still had it better. She was blessed. She consoled herself with the truth. Then she felt light-hearted. 

She could now understand the innocence of  a child. A child that she once was, a child that once upon a time, everyone was!

And she concluded:  the “Innocence of Children” is the strongest reality in any world. And no force can ever demean them.