The tonsure

A bright and sunny day when all the family members gathered. I was quite anxious since a few days. “He is too adamant these days. He forces himself to retract behind and hits hard when he’s unhappy or angry. Would he do that too stubbornly while they tonsure his head? Would he cry too much holding his breath?” I was restless. Tonsuring (shaving the head) is a tradition which all toddlers go through. We were in our family deity temple to perform the religious rituals.

The barber poured some cold water on Pranav’s hair. He smiled. Second time – he cackled; third time – he gazed! I was anxious. Proactive Harshu, my daughter sat in front of him with his favourite rhyme “wheels on the bus”. My little man continued to gaze as the barber slowly started shaving his head. He continued with smile and was focusing on his favourite rhyme. Until the last hair was shaven, there wasn’t a shake from my little one. All of us awed. Once done he smiled and didn’t even realise his hair is gone.

He continued playing as usual. We showed him in the mirror, made him feel his head with his tiny little hands too. A couple of times, he touched his shaved head and within a minute he started playing. In between he touched it rarely but didn’t look bothered. He laughed and played energetically.

As I started back to Bangalore, some me me time to reflect. What did my little kids teach me today? “Stay focused and nothing can bother you!” As you stay focused, even the troublesome situations, your bothering people, the knife that scares you, the society that laughs at you – nothing can be burdensome. Your focus would only be on what you like and what you’re engrossed with. Isn’t this enough to make yourself happy and successful?

As I remembered my little man remaining unbothered of his lost hair – isn’t this we need to learn to let go and learn to accept? A lot of times we continuously think of what we have lost and worry. We think of the past and brood over it. We are unable to move on but our heart bleeds with pain. Learning to let it go and accepting is something which can bring back the cheerful us. Should’ve we accept the failures or situations and move on?

What did my daughter teach me? To be proactive and look for solutions to any problems! While I was only anxious about what would happen, she just found a simple solution. Most of the times, we constantly think of problems in life that we forget to find a solution. Rather than paying attention to the problem and brood over it, shouldn’t we use our brain’s resources to think logically and find an answer?

Finally, one great lesson of life “Reality is not as scary as imagination!” I was anxious and felt insecure about this event although it was intended to be a ritual. I was too impatient to wait to face the reality. What did I earn? Just tension and stress. But the reality was rather simple. Isn’t it the same we go through at every stage of life? We follow our wildest imagination and get too anxious and depressed about what the future is going to bring. Rather if we just focus on accepting the reality as it comes, life becomes much simpler and peaceful!

A tonsure worth to remember! I gazed at my little man and he cackled clapping his hands!