A child asked its parent...

• What is empathy? What should i feel towards someone unfortunate if i were to meet one? I’ve never met or seen anyone that doesn't have similar privileges as I do so far in my life. When i meet someone like that, am i supposed to fear them? be indifferent? run the other direction?
• I have my own room ever since i can remember opening my eyes, how does it feel to share my space with others? without experiencing it, how do i get used to it? how do i know what it means to sleep on the floor in a small room with your entire family in the same room?
• What exactly are "deep-meaningful-relationships"? I feel like you are always in a “deep-meaningful-relationship” with those ~ 30 some people on the WhatsApp/ facebook and other social media.
• Birthdays, anniversaries, condolences, thank you, sorry, fights, making plans to meet, denying plans to meet, praise achievements, confirm locations, express affection, express gratitude, share laughs, fwds., everything is shared and expressed over WhatsApp. Does that mean all of the above command the same level of involvement & engagement? I find you engrossed in your phone often instead of being present with me  (i can understand that i exhaust you often, but still..) or with others that are hanging out with you - are you saying all that dedicated focus on your phone & WhatsApp isn’t about building a deep-meaningful relationship?
• Do you think I will be ok connecting with people in absence of devices and gadgets? Today when I meet my friends, after running around for sometime, I feel uncomfortable if I don’t retire to my gadget & apps, get cranky, need my dosage of being in front of a screen, perhaps i don’t really know how to disconnect, and perhaps i may not need to learn how to disconnect, but i think i might be better off learning how to deal with boredom, it might force me to be creative maybe?
• One of my friends once told Hitti-kaka: My mom is always busy, she is always working, even weekends, she has no time to talk even to me,,,, I really didn't know what to say to that...
• I think it will be different, to have just a casual conversation with you - no instructions, no reprimanding, no praising me over a trivial achievement, in fact the chat may not even be about me! (is that even possible..?) but just a simple parent-child banter, perhaps some memories of the past, your childhood, some daily trivia, just a  casual hang-out with your kid type of a conversation? Can we have that every once in a while?
• How do i learn how to go out of my way to be there for people in my life, not because i expect something in return, not because they helped me or you or someone in our family, and should pay it back, but just because, just because they matter, how do I feel comfortable asking for help? I never see you go out of your way to make it happen for anyone in your life except for me i guess? nor do I see anyone come to  us unless it's an event of some kind, does "being there for each other one way or the other" simply means sending emotions via WhatsApp for our times?
• How to tell if one of my friends needs me? Or how do i know if it’s ok to ask for help? is there an App for that? I have heard that helping someone and seeing their gratitude in return is priceless, it is also a big contributor to raising our level of well-being (Dalai Lama said so…),  also building self-confidence, feeling accomplished, being recognized as a helpful human is a significant source of internal joy (Desmond tu tu said so…), but without all of the questions answered that i ask above, will i ever get to experience that?
• How do i learn to “invest” in people that are in my life? that i have known for decades? I seldom hear your conversations out loud, this never get's spoken at the diner table, most of your communication is via messages, I don’t get to hear you thank deeply, apologize genuinely, take extra effort/ go out of your way for something social, request or deny something with anyone when you are around me when you cannot make it. So i guess i will never learn these fundamental means of communicating effectively, is that ok?
• They say 93% of communication is non-verbal in face-to-face meetings (expressions & micro-expressions, voice modulations etc.), it means that I will learn from what i observe, my world is what you both put together for us,  at least in the initial few years of my cognizant life until I go away from home, am I growing up in an environment that is rich and full-filing with all of these qualities? You think this is something that will come naturally to me?
• When you grow older, will I feel the same way you feel about your parents today? The memories that you created with them when you were growing up were in less affluence style of living. There was no luxury of personal space, only shared space, going around with you on a bicycle, then a scooter, stuck between the two of you so that i don't fall off, instead of a car like in our case, how they held you higher & gave up their own seats to you so you sat comfortably in public transportation, buying a snack and sharing it off of a news-paper at Juhu-beach. all those tiny but rich memories you talk to me about often.
• The part excitement-part fear that you got when water is dripping from the roof and floods are inside the house when it rained heavily, watching earthworms dance around in agony when you dropped a couple grains of salt on them as they appeared everywhere in the kitchen area. The words of comfort your mom gave you as a kid in those situations, I doubt I will ever experience such words!
• Visiting some uncle-aunty’s house, where they had a great time chatting away while you were only a part of the conversation for like 10 minutes when they asked you your rank, teacher’s name or some other trivia and then ignored you for the rest of the 4 hrs. of their conversation. When they had no kids to make friends with, you had nothing to do but make up your own games with paper or perhaps stare at their furniture and eventually doze off after complaining a little bit. I don't have that luxury today, I am cursed to feel privileged all the time with either a person or a device to my disposal all the time otherwise it's unacceptable & I have the capability to ruin everyone's peace and throw tantrums rightfully. Dare you try that in your days - you would fail and fail miserably wouldn't you :)?
• Your memories with your parents are so different from mine! When you talk about them, it feels like you were three soldiers in a battle-field, experiencing so much more together, shoulder -to - shoulder, struggles and your triumphs over them, etching little by little in your mind as you grew up. I feel like they have naturally poised you to feel much more connected to your parents, I am not sure if we are creating any such memories, that would shape my emotions for you as you grow older. Maybe because even if you are struggling I never heard you talk about it, is that because you are too stubborn to admit it or because you think it’s a sign of weakness? Not that there needs to be adversity in our life or struggles, but i cannot help but feel that life is a smooth ride for you and has always been, So I am expecting it to stay that way for me too. I don’t need to be prepared for it; do I?
• If only there was an opportunity to see you struggle with something & achieve success at it, if i only i could spend the time with you to build something, create something, if only I could witness your focus and stamina in averse, unforgiving conditions, if only you and I went for a walk one day perhaps not even saying much up in the hills, if you and I could share a space of gratitude & respect, not because you want me to, but because I see it and feel deep down that you have earned it. 
• You have enrolled me in the best school and extra-curricular activities, and doing your pickup-drop-off duties diligently to all of my classes and school, getting me connected with professionals in the field of sports, dance, music, art, you feed me everyday, you provide for my good physical health - you are going above and beyond your capabilities to provide me these things - you are exhausted at the end of the day and perhaps have no bandwidth to think any more beyond all that you are doing for me. You want me to be a rockstar, an over-achiever, you don’t want me to fall-back in comparison to any of the other kids growing up with me, I am almost guaranteed to pickup on all or most of these skills and perhaps be proficient in some as well. 
• I will perhaps grow up to be a very skillful person but what about my personality? what about connections? Who will guide and bolster the pillars of warmth, caring & love in my personality in these tender years? As a sub-conscious/ by-product of going through the training for various skills above perhaps I will gain some qualities but are you sure thats good enough?
• I want you to consciously meditate over these thoughts. I want to understand, accept & harbor empathy, gratitude, altruism, joy in my life. Make an intentional effort to enable me to value & cherish meaningful relationships, and spread & create a warm family like you and grandpa did!