Aab is fascinated with children. He can sit and watch them for hours. He enjoys the company of children most when they are given freedom to do whatever they wish, and when there is no adult breathing down their neck. Their creativity, capacity to adapt and enjoy, their resilience and ability to bounce back from a setback, their desire to explore and learn anything out-of-the-box is absolutely enthralling to him.
Aab does not intrude into the world of children unless they invite him to do so. Most times he is perfectly happy observing them minutely, admiring their innocence and charm, and their habit of being contented with whatever comes their way. A rich parent buys his child a very expensive toy, and within minutes the child has converted the cardboard box in which the toy was packed into a house, tank, fort or whatever his imagination leads him to, and forgets the toy.
Aab goes by the tenet that if you like a flower you pluck it, but if you love a flower you nurture it on the plant itself. He practices the same with children – watch and enjoy them in their own environment, in their own unique world which is not tainted with ‘adult’ cunningness. He is very happy if a child asks him a question – because that is an affirmation that the child had reposed her faith in him. He answers gently and with his limited knowledge – or admits that he does not know the answer. He is thrilled if the child comes out with the answer. For Aab is a child at heart, and is more than willing to learn true lessons of life from a child, which he knows no adult can ever teach him.
