By Pooja Marwah
I believe I am correct in believing that a majority of the world’s population grew up on nursery rhymes. Mindlessly our caretakers sang for us, as we did to generations younger. It was supposed to be a part of the growing up process – to know ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’ or ‘Ring-a-Ring-a Roses’. And my generation blindly followed that, as I had my children.
So, I am too… guilty as charged.
Years later, in their adolescent years, we were talking about the fading importance that reading had among children today and that brought up the subject of nursery rhymes when, suddenly, I was told that they were the “stuff nightmares are made of”.
“It is crazy but it’s true that almost all of the erstwhile nursery rhymes have a gory hidden meaning in them. And you sang it to us without even knowing what it meant,” said my 12 year old, nonchalantly.
I must admit that I was rather taken aback as we researched. ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’ was about the medieval wool tax and the black sheep were considered unlucrative as their wool couldn’t be dyed. ‘Ring a ring a roses’, was about the bubonic plague that wiped out 15% of Britain’s population. ‘Here we go around the mulberry bush’ was originally about the female inmates of the Wakefield Prison who went around the mulberry bush in the prison yard, for exercise!
I couldn’t believe what I was reading but then it was from a verified documentary so the authenticity was guaranteed. But, it sure did get me thinking deeper. Was this how preoccupied we were? Without even checking credibility, we indulge in conversations unaware of the content.
We talk frivolously of others; we often mock at their personal choices of expression. To show our solidarity, we follow blindly until one day we become the ones that were slowly being blinded in the process. Only we don’t realise it.
Relationships are a continuous process of learning about each other. It is about finding a common path to walk on, instead of meandering aimlessly. It encompasses traditions and rituals that have meaning, and are not random generation pass down trivia.
It is important to always know the truth for yourself, before venturing out to share with another; for unknowingly, it may be a scar that will always remain.
At one point, singing a nursery rhyme was a way of conversing with a child, who didn’t quite understand words. But a fact that I had overlooked was that, one day, that very child would grow to question the scars I may have left behind.
Life catches up, as it always does and it is at those times when you wish that you had taken the time to gauge the integrity of the words you once so nonchalantly used.
(Pooja Poddar Marwah is an award winning author and Blogger. She writes an contemporary living and offers incisive reflections on the world around us. Her blog, Random Conversations is a go to guide to deal with the myraid stuggles we face each day.)
