Age of innocence...

This happened so many years ago in my life that I could not tell exactly when it happened. However, the event was so explosive and the age so impressionable that I remember each detail of the episode.

It was in our doorway at home. My brother and I were soaked with sweat, having had a great game out in the garden. It was a warm summer evening. Vacation time. There was no hurry to go back home. No school next day. It was still light at around six thirty or seven in the evening.

One of my 'friends', got annoyed with me for some reason. We all turned back home. Being next door neighbors, we were walking together. Not a good idea when you are annoyed. It did not help the situation. We were in the doorway- nicely framed by it. This girl could not keep it inside! She turned and slapped me full on my face- her left hand to my right cheek.

We were being taught about the Gandhian ideals at that time. I felt the sting of the slap. I also felt the sourness of the mood. For a moment, I felt a rage rising inside me. And then, all of a sudden, it disappeared. I told this girl- Gandhi used to say if you are slapped on one cheek, you must put forth the other. Violence is not a fitting reply to violence and a slap in return will only be returned by another slap... For a child of about ten, I would say, that was remarkable.

However, before I could even turn my cheek, she turned around and slapped me on the other one! Here's one for your Gandhi! She was really upset.

Looking back on it- I can still feel the hurt. I can still see the scene as if it is playing on a screen. And I can still live all the emotions I felt.

This girl is still my friend. We can now laugh about this episode. She is now embarrassed about it. But- we can not forget it!!!!

I have been called a lot of things. After this one one more epithet was added to the string of titles I would find attached to me- Stupid!

I would have preferred Innocent. But I came to be called Stupid.

Now my son has done something he will not forget the rest of his life... He is also INNOCENT!!! And he has done something in school- where he will be facing a lot of bullying for stupidity!

Another boy asked him to splash ketchup on the classroom fan if he wants to continue to be friends with him! And he did!!!

The teacher was livid- rightfully so.

I have not seen it- but I can well imagine what the red must be looking like on the clinically white ceiling of the newly painted class-room! I asked my munna ( is there anything else I can call him after this?!) why he did that!? His reply was that the other boy said he would be friends only if Moksh did this! " What is the name of this boy?", I asked in sheer exasperation. My son's unbelievable reply,"I do not know!" He does not know who asked him. He did it because this guy told him that was the condition of friendship!!!

Such are the days of innocence! Such are the currents that we learn to swim against. Sometimes they hurt us physically like the slap, and sometimes they hurt us much deeper like the teacher screaming at my son for having done something he could not explain. At the other end of the spectrum are the children who have the fun- at teh expense of the innocent ones...

But each action generates a karmic debt or equalises it... We, the innocent are better off- being taken care of by the Guardian angels and equalising at each intersection.