The Robot Child

I wanted to write about this child of one of my cousins, whom I had never seen. But I heard about him from my uncle and his attitude was so kewl that I could not resist putting something about him here :)

This kid is a naturalized U.S citizen and has probably seen 2 summers, and a winter since his birth. He is chumpy and has a flowing hair which he meticulously brushes off his eyes, a million times, without having even a wee bit of bother. He looks at you as if you were his friend from the infinite past and he knows all of your secrets and worse, you know all of his. He just looks and smiles at you long enough to catch your undulating attention and then immediately wanders off to something else. Almost everything around him manages to catch his attention and care. He can distinguish between animate and inanimate things, though. He takes enough care not to disturb animate objects. A look and a understanding smile are all, he has for them. But inanimate objects are lucky enough to get a closer treatment from the hands of this kid. He picks the lifeless objects looks at them, carefully caresses them, waves his hands with them in hand, but oh, so carefully as to not let them fall down. He is their caretaker. He is their God.

When his parents or the so called elders give an angry glance and tell him, he should not be playing with anything, he gives it back with a smile and the same understanding glance and leaves all he has in his hands and moves on, in search of another thing, that's waiting for his masterly treatment and care.

Like a Robot, he crawls on and on, checking with all these objects. To an indifferent observer it would seem as if he is trying to fill these things with what humans tout to have, LIFE. While I don't completely understand his philosophy towards life, it is so impressive and attractive that I am dying to see him whenever he can come over to India next.

I guess, he thoroughly embodies the most successful attitudes towards meterial things in life. The one which has been so widely propogated by the followers of Lord Krsna. The idea of having extreme fondness towards objects around you and at the same time, having the capability of detaching oneself from them upon short notice. Like a drop of water on a lotus leaf and the patch of oil on a non-stick pan :-), this kid carries with him the essence of happiness.