How do I get them to…

Man! How do you make your kids do what you want them to do? Leave alone do…atleast try! I am a defeated man in this effort. I am awarded umpteen awards by multiple organizations / companies that extol my managerial ability but all that knowledge, experience & learning comes to a naught when it comes to getting my kids to try something out!

When they were babies and then little ones, the big trouble was pushing them to try out the spread in our table. Well the spread definitely was wide and well thought. It was extremely well prepared and arrestingly served. As is the case with all of us, I thought my mom was the best-est cook in the whole world! She made my wife as good as she is in this most important aspect of life! And both of them are the primary reason for my girth! All that did not impress my little ones! If they did not want to try something – they did not want to try that out! I may be 10 times heavier than they were at that point of time but it did not simply matter! Don’t want and Don’t like were their most used expressions! I always returned from the dinner table 12 times heavier than them. One time for the food I consumed and one for the heavy heart! But all these did not apply to the assortment of high calorie, high sodium containing, highly acid-inducing, and health debilitating stuff like Kurkure, Maggi, chips and similar stuff that are colorfully packed and repeatedly advertised.

Now the current phase and particularly, the present event is my defeat in trying to get them to read books. When I tell that that Harry Potter on print is actually much better than the movie and hence they should read that, my younger one gave me an incredulous look! A look that allowed me to read what he was thinking in a dialogue balloon explicitly. . . ..like the ones you see in comics! It goes something like this…”Boy! The fat guy is loony! He is fat and he likes fat books! What can match the beauty of the film, so fascinatingly told!”. His answer was, “Can I watch Ra.One instead?” I tried telling him that all his uncles and aunts read voraciously and why, his mother finishes a fat novel in one night, flat. His dialogue balloon said “More fat loony people. I can watch the movie in 2 hrs” “Okay” he said. “But now I have to do my Maths homework.” Now his dialogue balloon said “I am in a legally un-touchable zone. You were the one that told me the other day that Maths homework is more important than anything else. If you insist that I read some stupid book, I will holler..THATHA / PAATI / MOM”.

So this was the moment when a man had to decide if he was a man or a mouse..and I decided mouse it was. And with nowhere else to turn to, I am pouring my heart out here! Now that this pouring is done, I am searching for my personal Bodhi tree to find an answer to this question – How do I make them do what I want them to do?