An unusual feature of the book is that Dr Sibal uses his young son Devaang as a springboard to elucidate his ideas and philosophy about the diverse dimension of the art of parenting.
Without becoming a parent as well. As an educator, I can feel this as:
Today we as a parent facing different challenges for grooming and nurturing our child. To inculcate good values and for helping our own kids we today are searching for a helping hand. And here we fail as a parent. Directly or indirectly we are we are creating distance in between the child and us.
We started repeating the same facts which we hate in our childhood. As in the childhood, we all definitely have at least one incidence where we must have said or felt that no one understands us. When we entered in our parenthood we actually started thinking with an angle of parents and hides or forget the child inside us. To understand our children and becoming a good parent first we need to start looking towards today’s world with our children eyes and vision. Then only we can realize the basic loopholes and area of work. And will be able to create a good bonding with our kids. But that doesn’t mean that we should lose our individuality but actually by understanding them to wisely apply and portray our individual thoughts smartly for nurturing our kids in the correct direction with a good impact on them. For an example “ when an actor acts a particular role/character or singer sings a particular song they first need to feel the same by involving themselves with the feel of an act or a song”. Then only the output will be the perfect one. But they do not lose their individuality at all.
Exploring the crux of parenting, this book asks and answers whether your child is ready to face the world. Being a good parent is a skill that is acquired over time, one that requires constantly adapting to the rapidly changing times.
The book deal with human qualities or virtues and a number of do's and don’ts, which should be inculcated or acquired during childhood to enable them to face the world with confidence and equanimity. The book has an attractive jacket, which entices the reader to pick it and browse through. The initial pages are devoted to a large number of “ prepublication praises” by eminent cricket and journalists including a forward by cine megastar Amitabh Bachchan. Interesting personal vignettes, historical motivational stories and quotes by eminent thinkers and leaders spice the publication. It is not a conventional parenting book but a book to promote human well being and happiness by ensuring that children acquire the qualities of head and heart by effective child-parent communication and by emulating the personal examples of their parents and teachers. Most of the desirable human attributes have been covered by the author but there are other celestial principles such as acceptance, dignity or self-esteem, power of prayer, enthusiasm, leadership qualities, silence and solitude with a focus on the “ present moment” and virtues of moderation or “ middle path” in life also need to be groomed and harnessed to achieve happiness and mental peace.
The book is characterized by a smooth flow of thoughts, lucidity of language with a horde of inspirational messages, and for would-be parents and non-parents.
“ Doctors first find the symptoms, then disease and then treat the patient”.
So for doing something good for our child, to nurture our child, we need to understand them. As expected our child to be trustworthy first we need to be trustworthy with them, to make our child efficient and ready to face the challenges of the world every moment.
“ Before expecting something from our child- first we need to become as per their expectations.”
Swastika Ghosh, Honest Icons @ The Iconic School, Bhopal