Child is the Father of the Man

Childhood is a phase where we feel everything deeply. Every traumatic, as well as happy incidents, get imprinted in us during this stage that the memories of those determine our further life. Rajesh Pillai's Mili is such a character who was deeply affected by her mother's illness & her death. Mili is a representative of many children whose childhood gets lost in the struggle to cope with the indigestive-syllabuses & who are forced to believe that a failure in it would determine what they are. The slow and beautiful transformation of Mili from an introverted, depressed girl to an independent inspiring person is touching. With the help of a handful number of right people who are ready to go extra miles for her, Mili steps out of her comfort zone by breaking her shell of insecurities which is as old as her. Mili makes sure that the children that she teaches are not judged by their inabilities or marks like she was but their small skills that no one actually notices. She also ensures that those children have somebody to back them up when they feel dejected & hold their hands to say 'it's okay'. It was a lack of this assurance to Mili when she lost marks or when she became bad at studies during the school days that made her crawl into the fort of insecurities that she built around her. Mili always longed for a little affection and attention which was denied to her right from her childhood since her mother's illness. Whenever something goes wrong she thinks of her mother and how she was left alone in the world of competitions without teaching her how to overcome the obstacles. Her label of 'professor's daughter' always struggled her psyche because that was considered as a yardstick by many to judge her. Mili's transformation was made possible by some right people who offered her a shoulder & who was ready to listen to her. Finally, when she comes out as the kindergarten teacher who does not want the children to learn inside a suffocating four-walled room, we understand that 'we don't have to be best at everything but we can be best at something'.And this is what parents have to teach their children because 'child is the father of the man'.

A.C

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