A kid's mind is like a sponge.

Am back in Chennai after spending 9 great days in paradise, oops Kerala. :-)
The weather was great in Kerala, had quite some work to be done around the
house which kept me busy, went around visiting some relatives and had nice
home food after around 2 months (esp. welcome after the one month that I
spent in the US eating lousy Pizzas, Hamburgers, etc).

As usual, no visit to Kerala is complete without a trip to Kollam to meet my
niece Divya. Also, had to give her the stuff that I brought for her from the US.
While there, my sister mentioned that the day before I was to reach Kerala,
she noticed Divya trying to eat much more than what she usually does. She had
more breakfast than she usually takes, tucked in more lunch and by dinner time,
she was unable to even eat what she usually eats. Still, she was trying to eat as
much as possible.

Having noticed this strange behaviour since morning, my sister asked her the reason.

It seems that during my last trip to Kerala, when I met Divya, I had mentioned that
she was growing in height, but looked very lean. And told her that when I see her next,
I want her to have put on some weight and look like a gundu mani. This was the impetus
behind her last minute attempt at eating more.

I was surprised at the impact of my comment made in jest on a young mind. We adults
are not aware of how much kids look up to us and how seriously they take our comments.
This incident will make me more careful in what I say around kids.

The good side of this is that since kids look up to us, we can use this opportunity to inculcate good behaviour and civic sense in them. All we have to do is do things properly and kids will follow without us having to even open our mouth to preach to them. Instead of lamenting
about the littering habits of people around us, all we need to do is look for the trash can the
next time we have the chocolate wrapper to dispose off. You can be sure that the young
mind that observes this, will automatically emulate you and grow up to be a better person.