Precious Gifts

When I was on my holidays recently spent in a nearby beach resort, a friend of mine narrated an incident which conveyed me a beautiful and meaningful message which I had almost forgotten to realise. It is an instance which descrives a young professional's gesture of booking an air ticket for his father, his maidenflight, which brought forth a rush of emotions and made him realize that how much we all take for granted when it comes to our parents.

Once his parents left for their native place and he went to the airport to see them off. In fact, his father had never travelled by air before, so he just took this opportunity to make him experience the same. In spite of being asked to book tickets by train, he got them tickets on a private airlines. The moment he handed over the tickets to his father, the father was surprised to see that he had booked them by air. The excitement was very apparent on his face, waiting for the time oftravel. Just like a school boy, he was preparing himself on that day and everyone in his family went to the airport, right from using the trolley for his luggage, the baggage check-in and asking for a window seat and waiting restlessly for the security check-in to happen. He was thoroughly enjoying himself and his son too, was overcome with joy watching him experience all these things.

As they were about to go in for the security check-in, the father walked up to his son with tears in his eyes and thanked him. The son became very emotional and it was not as if he had done something great but the fact that this meant a great deal to him. When he said thanks, he told his father that there was no need to thank him. But later, thinking about the entire incident, it made him to look back at his life.

As a child, how many dreams our parents have made come true. Without understanding the financial situation, we ask for cricket bats, dresses, toys, outings, etc. Irrespective of their affordability, they have catered to all our needs. Did we ever think about the sacrifices they had to make to accommodate many of our wishes? Did we ever say thanks for all that they have done for us? Same way, today when it comes to our children, we always think that we should put them in a good school. Regardless of the amount of donation, we will ensure that we will have to give the child the best, theme parks, toys, etc. But we tend to forget that our parents have sacrificed a lot for our sake to see us happy, so it is our responsibility to ensure that their dreams are realized and what they failed to see when they were young.

It is our responsibility to ensure that they experience all those and their life is complete. Many times, when our parents had asked us some questions, we have actually answered back without patience. When our daughter asks us something, we have been very polite in answering. Now we should realize how they would have felt at those moments. Let us realize that old age is a second childhood and just as we take care of our children, the same attention and same care needs to be given to our parents and elders.

Quality time and politely answering them with out making them wait is important. Also we should realise that we must look at their eyes and answer them pleasantly and pretend to be reading papers and answer in mono syllables. Rather than in the above incident where the dad saying thank you to the son, the latter should have wanted to say sorry for making his dad wait so long for this small dream. One should realize how much the parents have sacrificed for their children's sake and its the duty of that child to do its best to give the best possible attention to all their wishes. Just because they are old does not mean that they will have to give up everything and keep sacrificing for their grandchildren also. They have wishes, too.

Lets all take care of our parents. THEY ARE PRECIOUS. One can't have the option of having few more parents. Let us start spreading the religion of love and peace all over the world as much as possible.