Just messin with kids

The Creature at the Window

2009-03-11T11:49:00.002+05:30

“ Sweet dreams honey! There are no evil creatures there. It’s just your imagination... and try not to suck your thumb. You are now six years old! Good Night.” Mother tucks Ditoo in bed and leaves the room.

Mother’s footsteps fade away. Her bedroom door creaks. The latch clicks. The night

“Mom’s gone!” Ditoo whispers. It’s just you and me now Barker.“

The night lamp throws weird shadows on the wall. Ditoo tries to suck her thumb but is too scared. She can hear her heart pounding loudly against her chest.

“Shut up heart!”

The sound of the heartbeat subsides. The night is still. Dogs bark in the distance. Then there is silence.

Suddenly there is a tapping sound on the window! Ditoo is startled. She pulls her rug over her head and hugs Barker, her toy Dalmatian, tightly .

The tapping sound continues. Ditoo peeps at the window through a gap in her rug. There is a black creature at her window! It seems determined to break into her room!

In sheer desperation, Ditoo throws Barker at the window.

“Go away! Barker bites! “ She hisses. The creature disappears!

Ditoo wakes up at dawn. She looks at the window. Barker is stuck on the window sill. She jumps out of bed and picks up Barker.

“Barker, you saved my life!”

Ditoo opens her window and looks out. There is nothing there!

“What a beautiful morning! Look Barksy boy! “

“WOOF!”

“I wonder what that nasty black creature was. “

“ GRRR!”

“No use asking mom or dad. They’ll say it’s my imagination!”

“ARF!”

“ It is up to us to solve the mystery Barks.”

“ WUFF“

Ditoo and Barker walk in the garden. They poke around the shrubs with a stick. Suddenly something black flutters near the flowerbed.

Ditoo turns pale. She drops Barker and runs a short distance. Then she stops, turns and decides to retrieve him. The creature is still fluttering. Ditoo picks up Barker, holds him up in front of her and ventures close to it. She kneels down and looks at it.

“AW! You are just a baby bat!”

The creature looks at her with piteous eyes.

Ditoo prods it gently with a stick. “Are you hurt? Are you lost? Never mind, you can stay with us. We’ll call you Flapper.”

Mother returns from her morning walk. She sees Ditoo holding Flapper and lets out a scream. “ EEEK! Drop it now ! It could be dangerous! ! ”

Mother grabs Ditoo’s arm. Ditoo shakes off her mother’s grip and says calmly, “Mamma, it’s just your imagination! Actually Flapper is now family.”

Young Descartes

2009-03-05T19:35:00.002+05:30

[Dhrithi is an eight year old with a quick brain and her own brand of unbeatable logic. She does not accept facts that are handed down by her teachers or parents. She deduces her own truths about the world with deep intuitive reasoning. I am just a regular mother. I often find myself in a precarious position, trying to match my hand-me-down knowledge with my daughter’s rhetoric. Here is a slice of conversation between us during a long car drive home. I am driving after a long day at work, it is late evening, a good time to raise basic questions about life that we take so much for granted.]

Dhrithi: Ma, ma guess what! We are learning about living and non-living things in school. After we go home I need to make a chart.

Me: Hmm. So tell me, what are living things and non-living things?

Dhrithi: A living thing is something that can breathe, grow, multiply and die.

Me: Good. But what does multiply mean?

Dhrithi: It is something like ‘grow’. I did not understand properly. We learnt an action song. For ‘breathe’, we all breathed loudly, for ‘grow’, we stretched upwards and raised our hands, for ‘die’ we had real fun. I held my stomach and rolled on the floor, Sethu stuck out his tongue and dropped down on this chair, Icy and Dimpy fell on top of each other, Ma’am held her head and acted like she would faint.

Me: (smiling) What about multiply?

Dhrithi: We rolled our hands fast like a wheel! Me: (laughing) Your teacher has good imagination! ‘Multiply’ means to have babies.

Dhrithi: Oh! (After a pause) But I don’t have babies mom and I know that I am a living thing.

Me: Right. But all humans can have babies when they grow up.

Dhrithi: Aha! But boys and men can’t have babies, so are boys and men not living things? No ma. Multiply cannot mean have babies. It must mean some thing else.

Me: Ok! I am sure you teacher will have a better explanation for ‘multiply’. Dhrithi: (excited)Hey, I know a way to find out what is a living thing and what is non-living. Look here, look here... I got it mom!

Me: You know I cannot look at you when I am driving. Tell me, I am listening.

Dhrithi: All man-made things are non-living... All things that nature made are living things!

Me: Good definition for a start. But let’s see if this is a correct assumption. So what are some examples of living things?

Dhrithi: Who doesn’t know! Plants, birds, dogs...

Me: Good! What are some non-living things?

Dhrithi: Easy! Tables books, cars....

Me: Is an apple a living thing?

Dhrithi: Not when I eat it. It is a living thing before it is plucked from a tree... See, that’s nature. But when it comes from a box in the super market it is man-made or non-living.

Me: Wow! That’s a good one.

Dhrithi: Hey ma! How could I have been so cruel! I have not played with my Teddy for three days! He must be missing me! Drive faster mom!

Me: Don’t worry. It’s just a toy.

Dhrithi: No ma. I am sure he will be missing me.

Me: It is nice to believe that toys and other things have feelings but they don’t. Toys are non-living right?

Dhrithi: Teddy loves me very much.

Me: Scientific minded eight year olds should know better. A Teddy Bear is a non-living and it does not have feelings.

Dhrithi: Is God a living thing?

Me: That’s a big question! What do you think?

Dhrithi: God must be a living thing! Because a non-living thing cannot make living things. And God made all of us! And I think all natural things are living things because like us, they were made by God.

Me: Think carefully. Stones, water and air are natural right? Are they living?

Dhrithi: (thinking deeply) No ... they can’t breathe. (Suddenly) But I know they do die. Like the lake that dried up near our school! My Teddy is a living thing ma. I just know it is.

Me: Does your Teddy breathe?

Dhrithi: Yes you can hear it if you listen very carefully.

Me: Does it grow?

Dhrithi: May be it needs time.

Me: It wasn’t born, it was made and it will not die...

Dhrithi: He might just decide to run away if you continue to speak this way! I am sure his feelings will be hurt!

Me: Let’s use your own definition for a minute... is your Teddy man-made?

Dhrithi: Yes.

Me: All man made things are...

Dhrithi: Non-living? Noooooo! Wait a minute! I got it! I think we all got wrong till now. All things are living things!

Me: Huh?

Dhrithi: Teacher’s got it all wrong too. In Value Education , she said that God is there in everything ... Everything means EVERYTHING! Nature things, animals, plants, man-made things, the moon, the sun and the whole universe! So if all things are made of God and God is living...

Me: Yes?

Dhrithi: Ma’am must have been wrong about non-living things in the Science Class! There is no such thing as a non-living thing! All things are living and have feelings. So mama, my Teddy bear is a living thing. Give him some respect.

Q.E.D. (At least for now!)

Do as you would... ( be done by ?)

2009-03-04T19:06:00.001+05:30

A stray dog stood near the busy tea shop hoping to get a few scraps of bun. People moved, traffic moved, the world moved oblivious of the three watchers. Ayush, Abhijeet and Chirag were out on the terrace of a tiny makeshift recording studio watching the lane below.

The watchers were bored. They were waiting for their turn be called for the recording. They had been awfully proud that their friend’s mother had selected them in an audition. They were to provide voiceover for a short animation film that she was making.

It was a late Sunday morning. The routine summer power cut had stalled what to be a three minute recording. The studio’s power back up system was under repair, the electricity company was not answering calls and so all that they could do was wait - for their three minutes of fame.

While they waited and watched, a policeman brought his bike to a stop with an arrogant screech. He almost drove over the dog which yelped and slinked away. The crowd at the tea shop gave way to the ‘lord’ too. A little boy dusted the rickety metal stool with his towel and offered him a seat. Hot, sweet tea and a lavishly buttered fruit bun were served. The offering was consumed with no sign of joy or gratitude. The ‘lord’ then stood up, crushed the paper cup threw it mindlessly. It hit the unlucky stray which yelped again.

It is an ancient Indian belief that every action however small is observed and registered. Karmic Accounts are settled sooner or later. The three watchers looked at each other. The unspoken agreement was “Sooner!”

Ayush crushed his paper tea cup and dropped it on the police man’s balding head. The policeman looked up irritated and surprised. He saw nothing but the blazing blue sky. He squinted at the sun through the fronds of the inclined coconut palm.

The watchers on the studio terrace had ducked chuckling in diabolic glee. The policeman scratched his head, wore his helmet, scowled at the passers by and started his bike.

The studio door opened- rather suddenly. The boys were caught red handed! Their friend’s mother had arrived on the scene of the crime just in time to figure out what was going on!

Being a reasonable woman and a seasoned parent she asked, “Would you like it if some one hid on the terrace and threw crushed paper cups at you?”

“No Aunty ” Ayush replied while the others grinned.

“Then why do you do it to others?” She asked assuming that her point was made.

“Because it’s fun...” The three chorused. No remorse, no excuses, no justifications.

‘That’s factual!’ She could not help but smile. She understood young boys and their compulsive urges for mischief.

The boys knew that the incident would be forgotten soon and that no one would remember what had happened. But after the recording on their way home, why did they get the feeling that the mongrel had deliberately winked at them ?