Buying Toys for children

Children usually like to play with toys. My mom used to buy toys worth Rs150/- each costs from Rs3/- to Rs20/- (very cheap in those days) during my childhood. And my friend's dad used to buy him two toys or games (Rs. 120/-, Rs. 50/-) approximately spending same amount. What is the difference between the two practices?

A child likes to play a toy only for few minutes and then after some time s/he needs the new entertainment. So it’s better to have many toys. And next reason is that most of the children break or damage the toys with in no time. If the toys are very costly and less, mom has to think other ways to make me happy or spend more bucks. So, keeping all this in mind to make me happy she buys inexpensive play ware frequently constrained to her budget.

But one counter-intuitive argument is there. When I went to my friend's home he had electronic/automatic games and I liked a lot to play with them as I didn't have them at my home. I used to think why mom is not buying such games. So, often I asked to my parents to buy such games and they bought very rarely. I was happy with that. But my mom's logic was cent percent correct as I used to play with them for maximum period of 5-10 days and then kept them somewhere in the store room either in broken or normal state.

I don't know whether I follow the same pattern exactly or not as I am being 7 years old, I hardly can observe, analyze my mom's logic. But when she told me when I am grown enough to understand her strategy I got enthused to know how great my mom understands the child's psychology and makes her child happy.

Win the losing Game

Chess is one of the games which captivate me all the time. When I learnt chess from my dad, I actually learnt the philosophy of life.

Learning chess is very interesting for a child and teaching a child requires a lot of patience. If I had played some silly move, my dad used to show me the mistake. And I used to withdraw my wrong step and go for another move. Slowly, I starting thinking alternative paths, looking ahead about 4-5 steps before I decide on any move.

But can you imagine the reason how we keep on playing the game even though we lose the game? The answer may be by making ourselves aware that no game can be won with out learning properly and adequate practice. That's great.

When ever I lose the game I had two options. One is playing the game again and again, waiting for my turn to win. Another option is to just leave the game which makes me defeated every time I play.Dad used to motivate me saying "You need just a little bit of practice." But being a child can I understand that? Can I enjoy the game losing it? When I play the chess, the mission of my life is to trap and kill the opponent’s pieces one by one ruthlessly and win the game. But when I play with my dad who is a very good player, how can I win the game?

Of course I get motivated after listening to my dad saying that we can't win the game just by knowing it or by playing few times. Even then losing the game continuously (and that too by good players who don't make mistakes so often) makes some of us get bored. So, how to carry on the motivation to try forever with out quitting?

My dad had the great timeless answer for it. In the middle of the game, he used to just exchange the sides. He takes my king's army which is in a very weak position and I am offered his powerful strong one. It’s Very Simple. Hey, it's also not an easy task to be in the strong side. I used to lose all my army before winning the game. But gradually it made me to learn how to play the winning game and finally the game itself.

With the course of time, I learnt to take his weak position and offer him my winning army. And then there had the real struggle, how to win over the strong army with my new weaker one? I realized the way to master the game. Win the game when I was actually in a state of losing! I enjoyed the both, victory (sometimes) and even defeat.

The question "Can we enjoy the game when we are losing it?" now has a positive response from me. I enjoyed the defeat. And it's surprising to see me to enjoy getting beaten.

And the question “Being a child, can I understand that to win we need practice?” seems wrong to me. Actually a child won’t care whether he loses or not, but in adults their ever growing ego does. Adults must understand this simple fact and must continue child like eargerness to learn.

Don't break your head for normal problems

When you are at the crossroads, you make the decision which effects your life and in particular determines your future. Some may feel this situation interesting, challenging and some see it confused, terrible. But still you need to take the decision. That's life.
Another important point to note is that you may think all moments as critical, turning points but actually only a few in your life will be the defining moments. Thus, there is no need to put your brain completely and worry, every time take the decisions.

Algorithm DecisionMaking
// Don't spend too much time for normal issues
{
If "Are you really at the point of no return?" then
Analyze fairly for ample time but with upper bounds
else
Just think for a few minutes about the problem
Take the Decision
}