I am sitting at a speech therapy clinic right now.
Watching the doctor work on baby A’s “r” sound.
The pediatrician had asked us to snip his tongue tie
when he was only 15 days old, I had grabbed him and
ran out of the clinic. I never imagined I would visit a
speech therapist one day. As soon as she saw baby A
few days ago she mentioned his severe tie and the need
to snip. After a little coaxing we agreed to try therapy
first.
As I watched
him struggle to
take his tongue
from left to the
right, the first
thought in my
head was there is
no need to tell
anyone about this.

But what if some-
one else is also looking for a therapist and doesn’t

know where to take their child?
Very often we tend to hide our resources, even a silly
tailor’s contact. Whenever you ask a woman where she
bought her fancy salwar more often than not she will

promptly reply that the purchase was made at a ran-
dom exhibition, and the possibility of a name tag just

doesn’t exist. At times I faced this with my friends
actually enrolling their children into a hobby class and
not discussing it. Unfortunately law of the universe is,

things, be it stories or objects, are meant to be discov-
ered. And then it hurts. Why would your close friend

choose to not share information that will help your
child too?
I already know why. Success in India is measured by
a fellow mates failure. However unfortunate it sounds
it is true. I am living in a city called Aurangabad,
which is a city in Maharashtra which is a state in India
which is small part of the Asian subcontinent which is
a portion of the world. My scope of competition for my
child is the rest of the world and not the girl next door.
If my son is learning a skill alone, how far will he
reach practicing alone? Imagine playing chess with the
teacher for fun or discussing a bad day in French with
an online tutor. I know my son will drop the skill very
soon if the influence of his friends is different.
The children around baby A are not his competition
but his peers. The very same peers who will go on to
become his very own first business and professional
network in the world, who don’t necessarily need to
compete with him but may assist him to success.
Vishwanathan Anand beat an Indian at chess, like
wow!!

Vishwanathan Anand checkmates his Russian oppo-
nent, which one would you prefer?

Ruchira Darda

I am Ruchira Darda, a relationship coach, parenting expert, author, and entrepreneur with over 16 years of experience. Based in Mumbai, I work extensively in the areas of mindful living and emotional wellness. I am a TEDx speaker and focus on personality identification to help individuals and families build stronger, healthier relationships. I also lead and actively support initiatives such as the Lokmat MahaMarathon.