The disarming quality in a child is not just its innocence but also the nature to shoot straight and tell your mind out. The mind/intellect, un-touched by stereotypical "conventional" wisdom throws creative outbursts at will. My 7 yr old is in such a phase. Some samples to relish -
- We were on our way to temple, discussing our religion, our Gods etc. Out of nowhere, she shot an arrow. "We have lot of God. But why do they build the Church so big. They have only one God anyways" :-)
- During the course of her grandparents visit, she was coming to grasp with the vagaries of life that comes with age. Her big-brother cited a mountain example - as he and his sister are in the bottom of the "life mountain" starting to climb and apparently we are at the top in our middle age and their grandparents on the other side of bottom having traversed life's length. The little one's brain immediately grasped this analogy and she also added her previous observations of how the grandparents grappled with many current technology trends. Out came the difference between the two generations in the bottom of the life mountain. Adding to her brother's statement "But thatha and patti are clueless and we are CLUEFUL". Take that Oxford Dictionary!!
- One evening's routine school-round-up involved something they did in science class. In course of her narration she said - "... a dead rat that used to be real..". Suppressing our laughter, we feigned innocence and asked what doest that mean. Without missing a beat, she clarified.., "... you know, it used to be alive.." How can you refute that ?
- From the unpolluted mind, sometimes deep life philosophies get sprinkled effortlessly. While feeling sorry for how her friend's vacation trip got cut short as her dad had to return to emergency at work, she wondered - "that's what I hate about work. You waste so much time in that". TELL ME about it...
- With our elder one growing up fast, talks about college are becoming common in our house. During one such discussion, the little one also joined the group with her own concern - "Is Bachelors' Degree only for boys ? or is it for girls too ?". Well put. A feminist in-training folks, to change, mankind - sorry womankind - whatever.
This last one is actually from our elder one. While explaining how present day parents obsess and torture kids by asking to pose umpteen times for photos, he declared - "we will anyways have five copies of every photo - first one has a bird sticking its beak, second one that bird has blinked, third one a bug in the leaf behind us has blinked, fourth one Amma thinks that she looks fat in it, fifth one is okay..." True, my generation has a real problem with cameras/photos ....
Yellow rose is from this year's spring bloom at our front yard ...
