My trials, tribulations, triumphs and more... - Arjuna.

Chapter 2: Childhood in the forests (continued) ...

Learning time...

Our daily schedule was very meticulously planned and assigned by our father. Various sessions that included in our schedule were vedic subjects, academic subjects, weapons training/ exercise sessions, prayer/meditation sessions, games and sports sessions and so on. And, every fortnight or so, father would juggle the timings of these sessions, to break the monotony of the sessions and keep them dynamic. After every couple of months, father would invite sages and scholars of other parts of the kingdom as well to come and teach us, apart from the usual sessions taught to us by the scholars of our ashram. May be, in doing so, he wanted us to gain various viewpoints from different scholars on the subjects, so we can learn and appreciate different thinking patterns and thus be flexible and open to thoughts instead of being close and narrow-minded with a single line of thinking.

These minutely detailed and rigorous schedules prepared for us by our father, revealed to us the innate capabilities and abilities of our father. These types of activities showcased a great deal of our father's character, that he was not only a fearsome and valiant warrior but a very smart person. Our father had all the fine qualities to command a kingdom for long and lead it from the front to make it prosperous and peaceful, not only through his immense technical abilities but also through his amazing intellectual capabilities. Alas, fate played a cruel role though.

The impact of our father's dynamic thinking and thought process, made a great deal of lasting impression on all our brothers, and in that, we brothers have to be multi-skilled in our lives instead of harnessing only one type of skill. We in our early childhood mainly through the efforts of our father, learnt that there is no end to learning, and one can learn at any age and learning is a continuous process. When I dwell into the past, I can very well appreciate that, these were valuable lessons of life taught by our father which helped us brothers immensely in our future battles of life.

Dinner and family time...

We used to have our dinner just outside our home, out in the small open area, as father liked to have the family dinner under the serene sky. Since, at night, there were not many people to disturb or distract us, so we used to have it in the open area. Madri mata used to make rotis, as she was very fast and adept in doing that, whereas Kunti mata used to make delicious saag and veggie soups for us. Even though Bhim bhai was still very young but used to aid our matas in food preparation. He also used to help our matas with the daily chores as well, when the maids were absent. Our matas used to feel very proud of Bhim bhai for the warmth and affection he had for his family members.

During dinner time, Yudhi bhai and Bhim bhai used to sit on either side of father, whereas Nakul used to sit in father's lap and father used to feed him. Myself used to settle in the lap of Madri mata and Sahadev in the lap of Kunti mata and they used to feed us.

After feeding us children, our parents used to have their dinner. After that, it was time for the most anticipated event for us, and that was the storytelling session from our father. Our father used to tell various kinds of stories with the intent of not only entertaining us but also making us learn some insights from those stories. At the end of the story session, father used to conduct a small quiz/problem solving session from that story.

The stories which I loved the most were those of battles, where brave warriors single-handedly taking on entire opposition. Yudhi bhai and Sahadev used to love stories on 'Neeti Shastra' and 'Governance of Kingdom', Nakul used to love stories where a beautiful princess was in friendship with the prince, but he is used to imagine much more on that though, as father used to stop at friendship only. Bhim bhai used to love stories where a strongly built boy was thrashing evil persons. Now, when I look back, I feel so proud of our father, even though he was strict when it came to our studies and training but rest of the time, he behaved with us in such a friendly and open way. We were never reluctant to share anything with him. He was more like a friend to us than a father.

Also, our father made sure, we knew the history of our great lineage. He used to narrate various stories and events related to our ancestors and used to have much delight in recounting the heroic deeds of our beloved Pitamah Bhishm (our grandfather). Slowly, after listening to all the stories and deeds of our Pitamah, we grew up in awe of him and developed feelings of immense respect and love for him in our hearts.

Our progress...

Sages and scholars of the ashram regularly used to report our progress to our parents on various subjects and activities and that made the faces of our parents beam with delight and pride. Sometimes people used to come to father to take his advice and to solve their disputes. Father used to listen carefully to such disputes and after weighing in all pros and cons used to arrive at a decision and sometimes during these kinds of hearings when father felt proper, he used to ask Yudhi bhai to give his opinion on the matter. Yudhi bhai used to give perfect answers as per the theory of those particular subjects. After such hearing sessions were over, sometimes at home, father used to pose those exact questions to Bhim bhai and most often we would be surprised at some creative and original answers that Bhim bhai used to give. This showed us one important aspect of life, there needs to be fine blend of both bookish knowledge and practicality as well. And, smart individual is one who takes into account all aspects and arrives at a decision.

I can never forget the immense happiness I saw on Madri mata's face and delight of our father and Kunti mata, when I got the first prize for being the best all-round student, in the competition held for the students belonging to various ashrams in different parts of the kingdom. The competition was held for over a week and included various topics ranging from academics, problem solving, storytelling, athletic events, weapons display and so on.

When I remember all these lovely events of our childhood with our beloved parents and brothers, I want to loop back in time and freeze the cycle of time.