*** HOW I MADE MY SON LOVE DUSSEHRA ***

We as a family are very attached to our roots and customs. We both, my husband and I, believe in raising kids conventionally as we were raised. Hence we decided that with seeding our boy using new-age ideas, we will also water him with old age teachings, what our grandparents gave us. And For this, we followed a ritual of telling our boy stories of Hindu mythology as our bedtime routine. We don't read any book when we tuck our boy to bed. Rather, we tell him stories, verses and shlokas of Hindu epics like Ramayana, Mahabharata, and Bhagwat.

With time, we told him about Hindu God and Goddess, and folklores that we were told by our grandparents. By the time my son completed 3, he was able to recite the full story of Ramayan. of course, we made the story easy and reasonable for him. We hid the complexities and added age-appropriate lines that he could grasp. No wonder he thus developed special liking for Lord Ram as he was an obedient son, a mighty fighter and a great king.

Now Vibhu (my son) is 5 and with his improved maturity, we have been introducing him with new characters, new stories and new verses of our epics. People really admire when such a little boy without any hiccup recites stories of Jatayu, Lanka-Dahan and how Hanuman brought Sanjivani for Laxman. One of the significant parts of the Ramayan story is the day when Lord Ram defeated demon king Ravan. Consequently, he knows that this is a day of celebration and is glorified with the name Dussehra.

For the last 2 years, we have been seeing Ravan Dahan and Ram-Leela, organized by the society. We also dig the local Dussehra fair. It is such fun to buy those paper made bow-arrows and swords from the fair. Vibhu gets close to obsessed with the story of Ram as Dussehra celebration begins (every year) that he often plays a pretend Sita Haran with us. He himself plays Ram, I become Sita and his father Ravan. He goes ahead and stops the abduction of Sita by defeating the Ravan that moment only. I go mad laughing as my tiny tot wants to change Ramayan's important happening.

Last year, his school also organized Ravan Dahan and he went all dressed up as Ram. In fact, all kids were supposed to dress up as one of the characters of Ramayan. This year also, he is again excited as last time he had a gala event in his school on Dussehra.

It is important to introduce kids with our deep-rooted belief and religious customs. I very well know that at times it becomes difficult to make kids understand the purpose of any ritual or tradition. However, we can make it fun for young kids by involving them in preparation and decoration. Festival feast, sweets, a visit to the temple and family gathering also make young kids excited. And as they grow up, we can keep introducing them the actual meaning of any festival or custom. They will for sure understand as we understood, right??
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