The Little Things - They Aren't Little!

Schooling-wise, my son has had an interesting journey so far. After spending his pre-kg years in a kindergarten school, he got enrolled into a new school and started his first year there.

I have to say that his first year was the only year that went smoothly in school. Thereafter, COVID clutched the whole world in its fists and led to a nationwide lockdown. Vedant spent the next two years 'studying' from home, attending online classes and doing just about everything except for studying. While I do not miss those chaotic days, I will admit that they were hilarious and funny too, if we ignore the studying part. 

In his fourth year, the school finally re-opened in the month of July. But then, it closed again as the buses had not started operating, which led to the return of the (in)famous online classes. The funny part was that, we live in an apartment which is just five-minutes away from the school and don't even avail the bus service. The online classes went on for another month and then the school re-opened.

Now, in his fifth year in the school, the kid enjoyed pre-festival celebrations as his personal-assessment exams got cancelled and mid-term exams got postponed due to some road work going around the school.

COVID taught many life-lessons, most important of which is, that health is the most important asset we own. In the course of feeling grateful every day that everyone in the family is okay, most of us ignored the inconvenience of working from home and kids studying (or not) at home. But as normalcy is gradually returning to life, it is reminding us of a lot of things that we missed because of the pandemic.

It feels like my son, along with every other kid, grew up too fast and I, like every other parent, missed many of his milestones. No school picnics as a child, no annual programs of the school, losing touch with many friends who shifted to their native places during the lockdown and ended up settling there... little things that did not feel significant then, but which matter a lot now.

While helping him with his studies, I often used to ask him to spell out words. Every time the kid spelled out each letter, sometimes confidently and many a times with hesitation, I used to get a feeling that he is still a child. There was something very adorable and childlike about spouting alphabets and erring sometimes. 

This year, there's no spelling out words. But there are meanings to be understood and voiced out! No wonder that asking for meanings of words is my favorite activity because there is something very innocent and childlike about this exercise in textbooks. When compared to the vast syllabus that looms ahead and the huge books to be perused, something as simple as 'Words and their meanings' feels immensely comforting.

Probably, this will change from the next academic session. Tricky questions and lengthy answers will follow. Maths will add more problems to life. Science will change the very chemistry of his studies. And in the blink of an eye, the kid would start attend coaching classes or studying on his own - something that is a bittersweet moment of realization for parents.

But today, there are words and their meanings. There are columns to match, diagrams to draw, scenery to be colored (using crayons, sketch pens and water colors), one-word question - answers and many such other topics that will soon become much-loved relics of childhood! 

Really, the little things, the little matters - they are not little! They become the most precious relics of life!