Sandhya tagged me in her post Facing My Fears. I had to

-List five of my fears.
-Link my post to the person who tagged me
-Link this post with a book. (I have more than one book, I am afraid.)
-Tag five people.

(1)The school my children attend has a big hand in shaping them. There are a lot of idealistic lessons imparted practiced. While I am thankful for the influence of the school and try following the same at home, there is this nagging feeling at the back of my mind. At times I am not sure if the children are living in a bubble, shielded away from reality. Often I wonder what their response would be to, what I consider based on MY experiences, the real world. When they grow up will this generation be different and hence my girls will have experience different from mine? Or their current experience help them to stay positive and deal with what they face in the future? Or will they feel cheated? Only time can tell.

TO KILL A MOCKING BIRD by Harper Lee addresses this issue to the point. Jem and Scout are being constantly told by Atticus Finch that essentially all people are good. In spite of his personal experiences, Atticus shows through modeling that irrespective of negative experiences, one must never loose faith in people. The character of Atticus Finch has been a great inspiration to me.

(2)Perhaps the greatest struggle of humanity is the battle between the good and the bad. I am no exception. I have at times experienced a inner conflict – should I do the right thing or do the thing that is right for me. I struggle constantly finding the balance between these two states. There is guilt, drama and fear.

In the Harry Potter series Albus Dumbledore tells Harry that one cannot have pure thoughts all the time. Finally what one choose to do is what matters.

(3)Growing up in a country like India, I do not need introduction to poverty. But Grisham’s Street Lawyer took me to a different level in my understanding of poverty. Before this book, poverty to me was just a state of living. Something that can be changed with education, right chances etc. After this book, I understand clearly that poverty is capable of making people desperate, a state that can make people do morbid things.

(4)Since this is virtual world, I feel that I must list one fear pertaining to the virtual world. I am afraid of tagging people. To be specific, I am afraid that people will not take it up if I tag them. It is silly and I don’t think I can find deep philosophy in any book to address this.

(5)Last but not the least, in fact the greatest fear is my children suffering and me not being able to do anything about it. I think I signed up for this the minute I became a parent and no amount of reading can alleviate this fear.

I am tagging YaadaYaada, Boo, PV, Narad and Uma. See, I am working of fear#4 already.  🙂