Queries of a 4 Year Old!👌
- Mitu
- Sep 4, 2020
- 2 min read
Over this period of lockdown, the Nana has started Aryahi on her dose of mythology to start with. Krishan been the beginning point. OF course it went to Ramayan and Vishnupuran, but with the onset of Janamasthmi, its Krishna fever again. We watch it all on TV and then sing songs all days.
In the middle of all this, we had an existential crisis the other night. We were all set to sleep when our young one starting whimpering. In a mix of emotions that ranged from "oh god my sleep goes again" to "What happened now", "is she hungry", "what will she eat?", "is she afraid of anything", I got up and asked her what it was. By now the whimpering had changed to crying and sulking. I got more worried and asked "What happened? Why are you upset?" and then I got the late night question thrown at me "Mamma in olden days, why did they eat on the floor and why do we eat on tables and chairs?"
Patiently I explained to her how and why we Indians ate on floors and how it was good and now in time with the British coming from cold countries ate on chairs and tables and post their leaving India, city bred people shifted to dining tables. While a lot of Indians still eat on the floor. She wasn't really satisfied, till I offered her that we can eat on the floor too if she wants. Happiness was writ over her face and then I told her that she would need to clean the floor once we were done. She agreed happily.
We were about to settle down, when round 2 whimpering started. Ready for a barrage of new questions, I sat up, now all alert. I was fully awake!!! Bring it on, my inner voice cried. "Now what happened?" And then flowed the cutest question ever "Mamma in olden times there was no laptops, no mobiles, no tv! How did they pass their time?" The innocence was touching and I just hugged that innocence and the kid that spoke those words. MINE!
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