बड़ा हुआ तो क्या हुआ

It is lovely watching Aaryan play cricket with the neighborhood children — little hands gripping little bats, every swing full of effort, energy, and complete seriousness.

Naturally, everyone wants to bat first.

After a few rounds of arguments and negotiations, the game somehow settles into order. Someone bats, someone fields, someone complains, someone storms away and returns thirty seconds later.

Then suddenly another quarrel begins.

“I am big!”

“No, I am bigger!”

“मैं सबसे बड़ा हूँ!”

A few of them even begin standing on their toes, comparing heights anxiously as though the matter carries enormous importance.

I can see Aaryan growing upset, almost on the verge of tears.

And then, quite unexpectedly, he pauses and begins reciting:

बड़ा हुआ तो क्या हुआ, जैसे पेड़ खजूर
पंथी को छाया नहीं, फल लागे अति दूर

For a moment the argument dissolves into silence.

Then the game resumes as though nothing important has happened.

But I remain quietly absorbed in the moment.

Over the past few months, many of our evenings at home have ended with stories, songs, and the dohas of Kabir. Somewhere between play, conversation, and bedtime, these words seem to have settled gently into his world.

Perhaps that is one of the quiet joys we have discovered in homeschooling — learning does not always arrive through formal lessons. Sometimes it appears unnoticed, in fragments carried through affection, repetition, and daily life.

Watching him stand there with a cricket bat in hand and Kabir on his lips, I felt grateful for those small, unstructured moments that children absorb far more deeply than we imagine.