Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Anjali - Is Hugging Bad?

Ah, the first of the gender battles.
'You know, I was very upset today,' said Anjali when she hopped into the car.
'Why?' I asked.
'I went to class and met H. We hugged each other. We normally do. And then G came and asked why I hugged him. I said I hugged him because we were friends. What's wrong?' But G made a sound as if something was not right.'
She was quite agitated by now.

'After sometime G came and asked me again. I told her hugging was good. G said  hugging girls is ok but not boys. But I said he is my friend. So what if he is a boy said I. And then H came and he said that I hugged him first which was not correct. I told him that he hugged me first and I put my arms around him. Then Harsh accepted and said that he hugged me first.'

More agitation.

'Then teacher came. She saw my face had become small. She asked me what it was about. I told her and asked her if hugging your friends was wrong. She said it was not and told me not to be sad for such small things. Then she took G aside and spoke something to her. G said S told her about this. And then S came and said that she did not. So what if we hug another person said S. Why did G tell teacher my name?'

By now it had become a full blown drama.

'So what if he is a boy nanna? We cannot treat them differently because their gender is different. What if someone's color is different? Should we treat them differently?'

'No,' I said. 'In fact hugging is good. Give me a hug.'

And onwards we move into a world of diverse beliefs, of rights and wrongs.

1 comment:

Rajendra said...

interesting conversation.