Giving it Back

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( This is the second post in the series of posts - Being a parent)

 There is no age or stage of life to start giving it back to the world. Everyone does it in one's own way. some of us start pretty early in life . They are drawn towards the altruist way of life. Giving provides them more happiness than receiving.  Most of us, however, realize this a bit late in our lives, when we become parents.

For when we become parents, we understand this thing in its truest essence.  Till that time, we mostly know how to, when to, why to take. And even when we give, we expect things in return. But you know what. Life has a strange way to square things off.  It makes you a parent, and in a split second, almost like through a miracle, you know when to, how to give and keep giving. To the one whom we have brought into this world. Our offspring.

Giving always has this cathartic effect on us. I remember as a child when I used to help my parents, siblings, friends or neighbors without any expectations of a return favor, it used to give me a lot of internal happiness. As I  grew up, these instances became far and between. Maybe we all were born altruist, but education ruined us? Okay, not all of us. But most of us including me.As we become adults, we do a one-off act of giving and be good for a month ( a year in some cases). Somehow it becomes automatic for us to do things only expecting something in exchange.

I was having a discussion with one of my closest friends and telling him stories of my daddy life ( he is still to take that baton) when he said this " I think becoming a parent promotes us to the level of Giving from the level of taking" . This sentence stuck to me since that day. I thought about it. How correct he was. And coming from a person who is yet to become a parent, it was even more amazing.

We have definitely been promoted, me and Himani. We have started enjoying giving as a process. We feel satiated in being able to provide for and attend to the need of our little princess.  We are thinking about someone other than us. That she is a part of us only is another story.

But that is just one part of the whole idea of giving. both I and Himani are feeling this extra for other kids as well. That extra need to do something for a street kid, that extra patience with a naughty kid, that extra love for that cute kid, that extra care for that crying kid, all these extras has added that extra ourselves to us.

Guess what ? We have not only been promoted, but we have also been raised. And its a great feeling to get a promotion and a super pay rise. Isn't it?

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