The Slum-kid Confidence

If I ask you to imagine a slum-kid what adjectives will you use to describe him? Dirty, hungry, beggars, dark-complexioned, half-naked, bathing in sewer, picking rags, working at a tea stall etc. Right?

One of the extraordinary traits these kids possess, which we miss to notice is Confidence. Go across any slum in India, be it a metropolitan city or a rural community, you will notice innumerable kids smiling, joking, playing, teasing, singing, cycling, pranking and doing everything else you can think with full of confidence, whereas parents in a posh locality, in the living room on the 35th floor of a multistory residential complex are looking for a counselor who could make their kid confident.

Now, the question is what makes the slum-kids confident? They live in inhuman conditions, suffer from malnutrition, and spend childhood in destitution. But, still they beat rich kids in confidence.

Here is the answer.

Confidence comes naturally if you have nothing to lose.

Probably this is the case with them. Their parents, often uneducated, doing 12-15 hour hard work for a paltry sum, have little or no time to bring up the kid. So, these kids live on their own. While the rich kids depend on others for even the simplest things done, Slum-kids do even the most daunting task themselves. The austerity of poverty leads to superiority.

Secondly, while the rich kid keeps toggling the keyboard of his Macintosh defeating some alien in a space game, the Slum-kid plays pranks, shares jokes, or equals the verbal taunt with a rogue neighbour. While the rich kid is twitting or writing a scrap in the virtual world, the slum kid does the same thing in the real world. The endless human interaction gives them an upper hand. Mind it! Doing things online is far easier than doing it on face.

Finally, these kids are not suppressed by the high parent expectations. They decide what they have to do. They choose their career, they want to be in. The freedom to take decisions, makes a lot of difference.

We are so busy with work or socializing that the kids befriends computer. We are so caring that the kid loses exposure. We are so ambitious that the kid renounces his dreams. It’s not the kids, should I tell who to blame?

Go! Think how can your brat develop the Slum-kid confidence. You already have clues now.