Ay Gopa!! Gopa,

“Hurry Up! We are getting late. Where are you Ethan?” – yelled his father, as he tried to get them ready for the school bus. 5 year old Ethan walked very calmly to his father and said ‘Here. I am in my body’. That made his agitated father smile.

“I am going to have two babies when I grow up, mum. Two”, declared 4 year old Merryl. “One will be a green pony and the other will be an orange pony”. Her trying-very-hard-to-be-over-things mother listened and then said “You have chosen Interesting colours for your children Merryl”, as she died within trying to figure out how her 4 year old was thinking on those lines. But the mother found it extremely funny too.

The workaholic was back home for lunch and as he ate with his wife, she complained how their 15 month old son was turning out to be a terror. She told her husband how she had to yell so much that her voice was giving way. The father could clearly see that the little boy was terrorizing his mother. The father tried his stern voice trying to let the boy know that he couldn’t get away with what he was doing. Lunch was over and the boy fussed with his father, throwing kisses at him, doing something ridiculously cute, and making the father smile. Soon the father had to leave to get back to work and the toddler begun to cling on to his father. Finally the toddler said ‘bye Baba’, waved his little hands to his father and threw him a flying kiss. The father came out of the house, got below his building, then went up again, opened the front door and told his surprised wife ‘Stop yelling at the poor guy’. Mission accomplished. I reckon the little toddler went back to his little room, pulled out his ‘mischief’ plan and exhaled ‘phew that was close!!! Now, how do I control mum?’.

A fanatical catholic grand mother, emphasizes on prayers to her little grand-daughter. She tells the little angel how Jesus went to Calvary and there he died for us all. She sensitively breaks into the hymn that proclaims the same. The grand daughter joins in stating ‘you went to Cadbury, there you died for me’. The grand mother’s deepest moment of prayer is beautifully disrupted with a smile, a blush and then upon establishing eye contact with her grand daughter, who just realized that something she said didn’t fit in, the grand mother laughs and hugs the child. A moment more precious, more divine and above all, like all the other stories mentioned here, a moment of pure innocence – sheer divine.

There is so much of innocence in these angels, so much of purity. They hold no grudges, no anger and no hatred. Most of all they are not manipulators, not conniving and then makes me wonder... what happened to us? We were those children some time ago. I pray for every parent to do the right thing for their children, to make them realize who is right and what isn't, as they grow up. I pray that we adults inoculate a sense of morality, a dose of braveness so that the kids might know that what might seem like a difficult or tough choice is actually something for their own good, so that they will learn to know the right path, the right people and above all that they will keep alive within them always, the umbilical chord between them and THE almighty. It's a shame that so many kids go astray, simply coz they are put on that path by none other than their own parents and/or guardians who are looking after them. Children are the light not just of tomorrow, but of today too. I say this because I truly believe that today they are the reminders to us adults on how much more pure we once were.

The kids in my life call me Gopa. Ethan invented that years ago when he was even smaller and a lot less naughty than he is now. I think he was trying to tell me to 'Go Far' away from him, but I just like to kid myself that he called me Gopa. When he says Gopa! I know he is going to take me for a ride. When Elaine says Gopa, it's usually a deep question about life. Thank God she asked her mother (my sister) what adultery meant and not me. I would have run away from her, doing my version of McCauley Culkin's scream. Merryl can ask me her 100th 'WHY?' in one single conversation, but at least I do not tell her what he mum does when she runs out of patience. 'Because the sky is too high' - I could never do that coz I don’t believe that Merryl would stop at that. Amaar can look at me, smile his most mischievous smile and then declare 'Chick-en!!'. That means he is hungry....again.

When I see these children in my life, I have just a few prayers in my heart. I always want to be Gopa to them. I want them to take advantage of me, take me for a ride, while I hope I never fail them. Secondly I pray that these kids always have that innocence in them as they grow to be able to connect to all the Gopas that they come across in their lives. By this I mean that I hope they trust, love and bond with whoever they feel is a Gopa to them, and may that Gopa NEVER betray them.

Go now and be the Gopa to the world around you. Amin, Amen
-Tagore Almeida -