Srijana Parajuli:

My five-year-old sister often turns on the TV and switches the channel to “Fashion TV”. When anyone butts in she is quick on the draw switching to another. It’s child psychology. She knows that this is not a welcome channel to others in the family. My parents and others at home often rebuke her for this mischief. Dress conscious, her knack for colour combinations is surprising. So is her sense of matching items of dress and hairstyles. She makes a fuss of her her school uniform from socks on her feet to ribbon on her head. My adult brain can hardly understand her childhood inclinations to the world of fashion and glamour. Neither does anyone at home.

My family members agree that she may get spoilt if she continues with her little obsession. But I’m not so sure that putting a brake on her natural inclinations like this is good for her. At an early stage, all of us have come through Ipsha’s stage, with the elders’ full attention focused on us. Whenever we do something politically incorrect, parents think that we will get spoiled if we go on like this. Most of the parents in our society want their kids to follow the beaten track. When it comes to choosing a career, they would give anything to make their children doctors, engineers, and so on. When anything strikes them as quite different from the conventional, they think that they know what is best for their kids, often nipping the bud of a talent.

Ipsha might not turn out to be the best of the girls being a doctor, an engineer, a scientist or something my parents want her to be. But let her go along with what she likes, she may be somebody one day — who knows a celebrity in the world of fashion? It’s equally possible that next year she may forget her current taste and switch over to something new. Preferences change with growth.

If only classroom lessons were sufficient, the world would not be buzzing with so many new things that have made human lives richer and more colourful. Building on creativity means opening new windows to learning and understanding things one has a feeling for. Inherent within the human spirit is the desire for fulfilment and accomplishment of creative aspirations. But these aspirations are often suppressed with fear — like the fear Ipsha carries in her subconscious mind.

So watch out, dear parents and sisters there! Next time your little sister or daughter turns on Fashion TV or insists on putting on her best bib and tucker, think before rebuking her. You might be killing a budding talent.