Ravi did not think he was anything special. He was just a boy from
Mithila with a puppy named Moti and a Nani who painted Madhubani pictures
on the walls of their house.
But this evening, Nani set down her bamboo pen and looked at him for a
long moment, the way she looked at a wall before she decided what to paint
on it.
"Sit," she said. "I want to tell you what I see."
Ravi sat, and Moti curled up against his foot.
"This morning," Nani began, "a big black dog came snarling into the lane,
and all the children ran. All except you. You stepped in front of the
little ones and stood your ground until it went away. That is a quality,
Ravi. It has a name. It is called fearlessness."
Ravi blushed. "I was a little scared," he admitted.
"Of course you were. Fearlessness is not having no fear. It is doing the
right thing while the fear is still there." She smiled. "And there is
more. Yesterday you found Lakshmi's lost coin in the dust. You could have
kept it. Instead you ran three lanes to return it. That clean, honest
heart — that is a quality too. We call it purity."
She counted on her paint-stained fingers. "When you give half your
sweets to Moti and the beggar's child without being asked — that is
charity. When you sit still and finish your lessons even though the
kites are flying outside — that is self-control. When you tell the truth
even when a small lie would be easier — that is uprightness, a heart that
stands straight."
Ravi stared at her. "I never knew those things had names."
"Everything good has a name," said Nani. "And every name is a seed. The
great teachers long ago made a list of these seeds — fearlessness, a
clean heart, giving, self-control, honest study, gentle discipline,
straightness. They called them the divine treasure, because they make a
person rich in the way that truly matters."
She picked up her pen again and dipped it in the dark ink.
"You already carry these seeds, Ravi. I have only named them for you. Now
that you know their names, you will notice when you water them, and you
will water them more."
