it works

What a tiring weekend. With Jispa’s cousin coming in there was never a dull moment. If there were any hopes of missing a second kid in our lives – those were happily squashed. One is enough. Two multiplies the issue a billion times over. Most of the emotional energy is expended in resolving conflict. Expecting the elder one to behave like an elder one and the younger to also let go.
On the first night they started fighting for using the same bathroom for bath. Believe me, there is nothing in the dam bathroom to fight for. Being the hosts we pushed Jispa to not in demand bathroom. She was upset with us. I then started talking to her. The good thing about Jispa is that at least she listens even when angry. I gave the big shit dialogue of ‘atithi dev bhava’. That got her a bit calmer. What was it? I explained that even in Sanskrit there is a saying that treat your guest like god as they have come to your home. This is also what Gandhi taught us. If he is being silly then we must be good. Only by the power of demonstration can you teach your others to behave better. They will not listen or notice, but slowly they will see what t is to be good. Then they too will respond in kind. That is the only way. You must start by your sacrifice.
As soon as they came out all clean and ready to sleep, the conflict on which bed to sleep on reared its ugly head. Both wanted to sleep on the bed on top. Jispa looked at me and then said ‘Siddhant, you tell where you you want to sleep. Anything is ok. I can sleep down.’ Instantly Siddhant replied ‘anywhere, I am ok down as well’. Jispa looked at me. It was working. It works. The rest of the weekend we saw more such gandhigiri to amazing results.

It did spread peace and harmony. Sometimes we dont realise the futility of conflict, be it between cousins or countries. Here is one amazing statement I really loved.