The Little girl in Dubai Dolphinarium…!

Recently I had been to watch the Dolphin show in Dubai Dolphinarium. There my attention was caught by a cute little girl who was very enthusiastic about the show ever since she entered the Dolphinarium. I could see that from the way she looked excited and how she actively she was interacting with her parents. Her parents were also happy to see their child so happy.

One of the items in the show was that some of the children were given numbered plastic balls to throw in water at one. The child whose ball is picked up by the Dolphin is a winner. This girl also actively participated in the game. However, her ball was not picked up by the Dolphin and someone else was declared a winner. The girl walked back to her seat along with her father but there was a total change in her mannerism now. She was no more looking excited and cheerful, as she did just before the ball throwing game. She sat on her seat with folded hands and frown on her face. She was trying to express her displeasure at not being declared the winner. Her parents were trying to console her and cheer up by saying that she was still the best and that this loss did not mean anything to them. However, she sat in the same posture for rest of the show.

It brought forward some important questions to my mind. Why did the child get so upset if she did not win a particular game? The reason is that she has not been taught how to take failure by her parents. Many parents, in order to please the child, always tell them that they are the best and praise them even if they err. That instills a super-confidence in them and they start believing that they are real heroes. This creates much bigger problems in life of these children later.

However, the more important questions was that after the child was upset with the results, she did not enjoy the remaining part of the show, which was equally or more exciting than before. However, she did not enjoy it at all, because she was too pre-occupied in expressing her emotions to her ‘caring’ parents.  In pursuit to display these emotions, she missed the show. And who was affected because of her endeavors? No one but her. The show went on as usual, The other hundreds of children and people clapped and enjoyed as before. Her parents were of course a bit concerned, but not to the extent she was affected.

Here is the irony. Many adults behave the same way. Whenever they get upset with someone or something, they cannot concentrate on what is happening in front of them for next few hours, days or even weeks, because they keep thinking of the past unpleasant incident. This behavior deprives them of enjoying life’s those moments which are not going to come back ever again. And again, who gets affected here is not anyone else, but they themselves.

There is no meaning in spending time about thinking regretful past and missing out on the current life.

Life is meant to be enjoyed each moment…!