Thursday, August 5, 2010

Talking to kids

Theme of the web-site http://devdutt.com/for-the-children-2/> (Which was recommended to me) seems:
"What not to do for and to our children born in the west, what we really need is help to get it right" in initiating them into roots of their original roots. This is no easy task. Look at Devdutt Pattanaik at page http://devdutt.com/for-the-children-2/ has to say:

quote
Try explaining the idea of Krishna surrounded by hundreds of milkmaids doing Raas Lila to a child. Are those girls, Krishna’s friends? So is it ok for a boy to have many girlfriends? Are those girls his wives? So is it polygamy? Rather than answer such blunt uncomfortable questions, some writers escape into metaphysics – using words like Paramatma and Jivatma which, unless you are a believer, sounds like gobbledygook. At one level they are true, but like all symbols, there is no one answer. There are layers of answers. Many answers one finds are usually not what parents expect or find appropriate, because these stories are catering not just to children but adults.
unquote

Should we explain it as the attraction of Krishna due to his handsomeness, melody of his flute or what else?

What I have heard in such matters was the reaction by a girl of 10 years when the the story of Gandhari (Gandhari as after her marriage to Dhritarashtra, learns of her husband's infirmity of his blindness. Then she decides to cover her eyes with a blindfold which she will never remove, to join him in his world of darkness.)was being told was as follows:
Gandhari was not correct. She should not have covered her eyes. By doing so she lost the opportunity to see and guide her husband well. It was a dis-service to him and probably escapism.

It flashed to the story teller to explain that Dhritarashtra was a king and he had hundreds of people at command to help him as a prop and Gandhari was not required to be on his side always, as required in a not-so-rich-a-family.

Children want to get the core of all these after churning the material they are handed and their own logic.

1 comment:

Harit said...

Interesting connection to the story of Gandhari.