The Magic of Children's Imaginations

Aditi is 5 years old now and her imagination runs absolutely wild! Her imaginary world is simply magical and delightful. For us adults, wrapped as we are with our mundane minds, a glimpse into a child's world of imagination seems to be a welcome break and of course, hilarious to say the least. Now I have realised that her magical world is actually is a treasure storehouse!. So here I am putting down a few snippets of Aditi's conversations with us ......... for me they are all priceless!

SNIPPET 1

Scene: Aditi asked me to leave the room so that she could play with her 2 babies (dolls). Around her head and neck she had wrapped a very nice muffler that her father wears with his formal attire. After playing for half an hour, as we were getting ready for bed, this is what she had to say..........

Aditi: Mama, do you know why I am wearing this on my head ..........because in my castle in planet Pluto, it shows that I am a mother.

Kala: Oh, you live in Pluto.

Aditi: I have a castle in Pluto. So me and my 2 babies are there with my husband, Shankar (not her brother, Shankar but another imaginary Shankar). There is a statue outside our castle of me with my babies and Shankar. Shankar wears a crown with a star on top.

Kala: Why does he wear a crown?

Aditi: The crown shows that he is a daddy and the star on top shows that he is married to me...... it reminds him of me and ... when he met me........

Kala: So for how long have you been living in Pluto?

Aditi: No, our castle is in Pluto but my actual house is in Earth and my husband, Shankar, his house is in Mars.

Kala: He lives in Mars and you live on Earth? What about the children?

Aditi: See, I live in Earth and my brother, Shankar, he stays with me. My husband is in Mars. My babies are in Pluto.

Kala: Children in Pluto and you in Earth? Who takes care of them?

Aditi: Krishna. He takes care of them in Pluto. He does not get scared of children. He plays with them.

Kala: But wont the babies miss you?

Aditi: (laughing) No, you know this Krishna, he is just like me. My babies are used to playing with the rattle and Krishna he plays therattle for them.

Kala: But whey do you come to Earth?

Aditi: To see my friends, Shriya and all. I have work in Earth also.

Kala: And your husband? Why is he in Mars?

Aditi: He works in Mars. And I go from Earth to Pluto to the castle and he comes from Mars. You know, he goes in a rocket from Mars to Pluto. But you know, I can walk from Earth to Pluto; from star to star, crossing planets....

Kala: Walk? How do you walk?

Aditi: You know, I have special shoes like rockets. My shoes are rocket-shoes. My husband, he does not wear rocket shoes; he is scared. But you know my brother, Shankar, he travels in a car in sky.

Kala: But dont you miss you husband when you are in Earth?

Aditi: Actually you know, I have two husbands. One earth husband and one Mars husband.

2 mins later.......as she is sleeping in bed.....

Mama, my brother Shankar, he sleeps with me and my earth husband, he sleeps there (pointing to a spot closeby).

Kala: OK Aditi, its time to sleep. Its very late. Good night......V. reluctantly she stopped relating the tales of her life!!!!!!!!!!and said Good night.

SNIPPET 2

Her current conversations are often about her riding a mute swan (She is into birdwatching. Mute swan is one kind of swan).

Aditi: Mama, if I ride on one swan and my brother, Shankar on another and Memai and Ramu Periappa (aunt and uncle) on two flamingos and we fly everywhere and we land in Bbay......then?

Kala: You will have fun!

Aditi: But what will Pati (grandmother) say when she opens the door and sees that we have come on swans and flamingos'!!.

Kala: Pati will be shocked.

Aditi: You know when she goes to the temple, I will tell her to go on my swan and not go walking. She will be happy........

SNIPPET 3

Aditi: If my friend cancels her birthdays and does not grow up and me and all others grow up and she is still small, then?

Kala: You cant cancel burthdays.....

Aditi: ( Loudly).... No....But SUPPOSE........

SNIPPET 4

Aditi: You know, mama, I married Shankar (this is not her brother but another imaginary Shankar) 30 years ago and we have a little daughter now. She is very naughty (laughing). You know from where we got our daughter? ....... From the moon.

Kala: From the moon?!!

Aditi: Yes, she was in the moon's stomach and we adopted her from the moon.

Kala: I did not know you could adopt from the moon.

Aditi: Yes, you know we went in a rocket ......and we got married in a star .......... and we adopted from the moon. And you know, my friend, Shriya and her husband, they got married in the moon and they adopted from the star

........And more on this theme......by evening her daughter and Shriya's son got married!!!!

SNIPPET 5

Aditi: (at night when it was cold outside) Appa, suppose all my ducks are cold in the water and they all come to my house here and they come in and they are nice and warm and I give them all a drink, then???

Shrikanth: They will be warm and happy.....

Aditi: And suppose they have the drink and then they all follow me everywhere..... then??? And suppose, they come and follow me in our car also and all come behind the car.... then???

Shrikanth: They hv to be careful on the road, there is so much traffic.

Aditi: And suppose they all sit in the car. All of them. They wear seat belts and all and sit next to me and some of them sit on top ofthe car..... then?

SNIPPET 6
Aditi: Mama, suppose I am eating corn and all bread from my packet fall down and they fall in a trail till my house and bed ....... and I come home and sleep ....... and suppose Aala and Jhili (her names for 2 mute swans at a local county park; she has made these swans her 'pets' and feeds them regularly) eat the bread and follow the trail all the way, and they come to my house and come to my bed, then? And suppose they see me sleeping and they also come and sleep beside me, then?
Kala: They will feel nice and cozy!
Aditi: And suppose next morning they are still sleeping beside me when I wake up, then???

SNIPPET 7

Aditi has 2 imaginary dogs right now and the other day when we were out for dinner at a friend's place, she regaled their 17 year old daughter about tales about her dogs!!! And this is what happened when her 8-year old friend came home.

Friend: (searching around our house looking for something) Aditi, where are you dogs. You told me you have 2 dogs.

Aditi: They are there ........ (pointing to a place in the room)

Friend: (totally zapped..........) Where?

Aditi: (pointing again)...... There.......

At this point, I broke the fun situation by telling her friend that Aditi's dogs were her imaginary dogs but we all play with them!!!

How Sadhguru reached out to me........

How does Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev manage to reach out to his children? What I experienced was nothing short of miraculous. Here is the tale:

It was in the early months of the year 2005. I was going through a particularly low phase in my life. It was a bad patch and I was physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted and worn out. I knew I needed help but I saw no help coming forth nor did I have any clue where to seek help from. I turned to Shiridi Sai Baba and started reading the Sai Sat Charita. At the end of one week, I had a dream of being with Sai Baba (that night it was as if an electric current passed through my entire body........such was the impact when Sai Baba entered my dream). When I woke up, all I remembered was that Baba had directed me to look for a particular person who would help me.......the image I had of this person from my dream was A MAN WITH A TURBAN and I knew it was a guru. So there I was with this peice of information....... I had to find out a particular guru who wore a turban.

'Guru with turban'....what did I immediately think? Of course, A PUNJABI or SIKH guru! So I searched high and low for the guru I was directed to find. I travelled to bookstores in Mumbai trying to read biographies of Guru Nanak or find something about the other gurus such as Guru Gobind Singh. I asked people for some details about these gurus. I was desperately trying to find a clue that would lead me to the right person. But all my searches were for Punjabi or Sikh gurus!

And then some months later in July 2005, my sister, Sudha, asked me to go for a 2-day program with Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev conducted by Isha Yoga. Sudha was just back from the the Wholeness program with Sadhguru and she had no words to articulate her experience. A good younger sister (!), I always follow Sudha's words.........so off I went and registered for the Inner Engineering program. Mind you........ I had never seen Sadhguru nor had I ever seen a picture of Sadhguru.

I sat in the hall with many other participants, that July 30th morning, and a tall man with a yellow turban, sporting a white beard walked in. 2 mins after I saw him, I COULD NOT BELIEVE MY EYES............ THIS WAS THE GURU OF MY DREAM......THE GURU WITH A TURBAN WHOM I HAD TO SEEK.........

The rest of the story is just Sadhguru's blessing. I was lucky that 15 days later, there was another 7-day Isha Yoga program that I could attend. That August saw the beginning of the end of a long duration of 4 - years of agony that I had gone through. I followed the practices of kriyas and meditation with discipline. They were my life line. Sadhguru reached out and gave me life again.

How did Sadhguru come thus to one who did not even know who he was? My story is probably just one example of how much he takes care of his children.

Settling down to the UK weather

Its a foggy day today. There are many ways of perceiving the weather outside on such a day. You could say, 'Wow, the mist looks so serene' or some may think of it as romantic, others may perceive it as mysterious and so on and so forth. The UK weather is filled with wonder for me. The weather can change many colours even in one given day leave alone in one given week! It could be very sunny for sometime and then change to cloudy after a couple of hours. After coming from the tropics, getting used to the UK weather is equivalent to accepting nature in totality! If you equate cloudy as gloomy, dull and depressing then this is not the weather for you. But if you are ready to give in to Mother Nature and truly enjoy all her shades and colours; ........then you could find deep peace here in UK. I am beginning to sort of touch that peace........do I thank Mother Nature?

First day

Its hard to believe that Aditi is now 5! She has joined Coombes Primary School and is in the Reception class. Here is a picture of Aditi on her first day in her new school (Dec 3rd '08).