REPLY TO ABOVE

Kashana-i-Komal,

Samanabad,

January 9, 1994.

Dear Sadia,

If Nazia’s heart is in dance and music and flowers and paint box, why do you try to divert it to geography and history, arithmetic and geometry? Is not music more melodious and mathematics? Is not dance more dainty and domestic arithmetic? Is not paint box better than history and geography? Let Nazia follow her instincts and you must help her to bring out the best in her. That is real education. You seem to have a bit morbid ideas about her passing the Matriculation Examination. You seem to be afraid of what the people will think if your daughter is not a matriculate even. But what is a matriculate? He is master of none. He is not even a jack of any trade. Let your daughter follow her inner instinct, and she will become something in the world. If you suppress her instinct, she will just rot. Take her away from school and educate her at home. Help her yourself, engage a tutor if you can, or send her to some art school which teaches music, dancing and painting. If nothing better can be done, let her follow her own education herself. You buy her such book as she needs. In the long analysis a child is its own best teacher. All knowledge comes from the people to books and goes from books to the people. Let your child be her own guide and ustad. You just wait and watch. When we throw a seed in the soil, it grows to be a study paint. Earth, Sunlight, water and air, bring the paint out and make it grow. Let them be Nazia’s teachers.

Yours lovingly,

Rifat.

PROBLEM TO CHILDERN

6/36 Parliament Street,

Islamabad,

January 11, 1994.

Dear Murshid,

My child, Azhar, has become a problem. He picks quarrels everywhere and uses foul language inside and outside the house. He pays no attention to his studies. He beats children, steals money and sweets, lames dogs and other animals, kills birds and bees for nothing. He is a great nuisance. My life is a hell. What should I do?

Yours devoutly,

Surayya.

REPLY TO ABOVE

90, K.M. Park Colony,

Bahawalpur.

January 11, 1994.

Dear Madam,

I cannot believe that such good mother can have such a bad child. Pepper cannot grow on a rose bush. Something is wrong somewhere. You have got to understand the child and let the child understand you. Do you admonish the child too often? Well, than won’t work. The more you admonish him, the worse he will become. Do you beat Sajid very often! Well, nothing could do more damage. Do you call the boy thief? If you do thief he shall become. You say your child steals sweets and money? What does he do with sweets and money? Does he hoard money or buy more sweets with money? Does he convert sweets into money or money into sweets? If he eats sweets, he is no thief. Do not call him thief. Rather get him sweets till his longing is well satisfied. When he has eaten sweets to his fill, I think he will steal neither sweets nor money. I remember that last time you told you told me that me that he distributes sweets among other people. That makes him a charitable man, a philanthropist! He is no thief. All charity is in the long run a thievery. We give free what we have stolen free. If oil people earn their living by the sweat of their brow, they would have little to give away. And what ever they give away tastes sweet like elixir and manna. You said your child beats other children and animals, birds and bees. Why does he do so! Think he needs exercise for his limbs, an outlet for his surplus energy. Why not send him to learn boxing from somebody? His energy will become a useful asset. He will learn to defend himself and others instead of becoming a thief. He will become a strong pillar of the family. You say he uses the foulest language in the neighbourhood. I think he is trying to become a great parliamentary critic. Why don’t you teach him public speaking? He may become an orator, a politician, a minister or may be a premier. You are not doing justice to Sajid. He is not completely bad. He is basically good. He will be a great leader. Give him the right training. Remember that Robert Clive, the builder of British Empire in India because he was too bad to be a good citizen of England. And here he carved a golden empire for them. So do not make gloomy pictures of your sajid’s future. Look forward with confidence and sampathy. Give him the right guidance.