REBOOTING WITH A CLEAN SLATE IS A CHOICE WE MAKE
Even a minor change in perspective can bring greater insight and deeper happiness
I am 46 years old — an age when you get a significant level of clarity about life in general. You know what’s important and what’s not. You figure out what’s worth your time and attention. You don’t want to please anyone and fit in. You accept things and people as they are. Basically, you start being yourself and get comfortable in your own skin — literally and metaphorically.
So, the other day, a childhood memory came knocking on my mental door. The year was 1979–80. We were staying in Jabalpur, a small, sleepy town in Madhya Pradesh. The new-age concept of “prep school” and “playschool” didn’t exist during those days. As we had shifted to the town in the middle of the academic year, my brother, who’s two years older than me, didn’t get admission into an English medium school. Thus, to keep him occupied, as a temporary arrangement for a few months, my mother enrolled him in a nearby Hindi medium school. I remember it was called Bal Mandir and was located in an area named Gora Bazaar. Believe it or not, the monthly fee of the school was just Rs 5 (No, I haven’t missed putting a zero here).
Every morning, when my brother would get ready for school, I would start crying and pester my mother to send me as well. As I was barely 3 years old, I wasn’t enrolled in the school but I guess I was too young to understand that. Tired of my daily morning tantrums, one day, my mother met the headmaster of Bal Mandir with a request to admit me in. Today, if your child is even a day or two older than the eligible age, he or she can’t get admission. But those were different, easier times, with less rigid admission rules. To my mom’s relief, the headmaster agreed.
The same evening, my mother bought a uniform, a small school bag, a slate, and a packet of chalk for me. The very next day, my school life began. An old lady, whom we fondly called ‘Amma’ would take a few kids from our area to school. Amma would charge Rs 15 per month for taking me and my brother to school.
On the first day of the class, I vividly remember, the teacher taking my slate and teaching me how to write the first letter of the Hindi varnamala. When the slate got filled with my first-ever written alphabet, the teacher would ask me to clean it and rewrite. The exercise went on.
It’s only now that I understand that sitting in that school, every time I was wiping the slate with my tiny-little fingers, I was turning over a new leaf and making a new beginning on a blank slate.
In the classroom called life, we all are given a blank slate. We can write what we wish to write. We are allowed to make mistakes and correct them.
There’s always an option of starting afresh with a blank slate. The theory applies to all aspects of life. Having a strained relationship with someone? Regretting taking some decision? Holding a grudge against someone? Feeling sad and broken about something? Stressed about a problem or a situation? Struggling with a negative thought pattern? Well, we always have an option of revisiting and viewing a situation with a new perspective, with a blank slate.
In Zen Buddhism, there’s a Japanese concept called Shoshin which means “beginner’s mind”. It advocates having an attitude of openness and keenness toward learning. Most of us have preconceived notions and prejudices about almost everything. The complications in life are nothing but a result of these notions. We can simplify it by wiping these notions from the slate of life anytime we want. This simple exercise works like a wonder in every situation. Try it and see for yourself. Go back to that nagging thought written on your mind slate. Wipe it away and write a fresh one — the one that gives you a reason to love, like, and appreciate things, people, life, and everything else around you.
(P.S. Within a few months, both my brother and myself were shifted to an English medium school. I was sad to leave because at Bal Mandir, during lunch break the students were served the humble mid-day meal that consisted of daliya.)
