A snippet from a three foot nothing with their innocent query about things we take for granted, can bring a smile to a weather worn face. Be they grandkids or the mischievous toddlers next door; during this pandemic they have been a never ending source of entertainment, and the reason to keep your sanity.
Are you having one of those awful days that we seniors are apt to have periodically? Days when not even rasgullas or garam bhajias can cut it? And yet, a snippet from a three foot nothing with their innocent query about things we take for granted, can bring a smile to a weather worn face. Be they grandkids or the mischievous toddlers next door; during this pandemic they have been a never ending source of entertainment for me. Let me share a few of these treasured memories that I visit every so often and the reason why I have held on to my sanity.
GodÂ
Kavya: Is Jesus a girl or a boy?
Parent: Boy
Kavya:Â Is he a God?
Parent:Â I think God is more of a spirit.
(Pause: a 4 year old can only identify things to cartoons – in this case the animated horse called Spirit who can fly)
Kavya:Â Oh, Jesus is a Horse!
Teeth are Lego Blocks
Devak: Are tooth fairies real?
Adult: umm (crossing fingers behind back) yes!
Devak: What does she do with all the children’s teeth? Does she build a house?
Adult: I hope not!
Career
Otis: I want to be a Doctor
Mom: That’s nice. Why?
Otis: So I can make dead people alive
Death
Kayan: When people die you should not give them meat
Me: Ok, why?
Kayan: Because you are giving them dead things to eat
Me: Makes sense
Kayan: Also, we cannot send food to the dead people because God will eat it (like in the temple)
Me: (speechless choking with laughter)
Facial hair
Avery: What’s that Papa?
Papa: That’s my beard. It grows out of my face, but girls don’t have them
Avery: Aunty Dana does! I’ll borrow from her
(Poor Dana has been unable to make her monthly parlor visits due to the Coronavirus)Â
They see through everything
Brynaam: Mummy, I need to let you know something. On opposite day I have to love Daddy more than you but I really love you more
Mummy:Â I see (hugs), but when is Opposite Day?
Daddy: Today is Opposite Day
Brynaam:Â Daddy, you cannot make that up just because you want more love!
Reptile fascination
Nanny/Ayah:Â I do not like snakes
Nolan: I like them
Nanny/Ayah: Why?
Nolan: So I can put them in your shoes
(idea germinated as an antithesis to discipline)
Apolitical
Niam: Where is India?
Grandma: (Pointing to the world atlas) Across the ocean on the other side of the world
Niam: No, it’s in your heart
(Way to get a kit-kat bar)
I have a diary full of these pearls of wisdom from the mouths of babes and someday will pen all of them on those desk calendars that call for a ‘thought for the day.’ If you have any be sure to save them for that rainy evening when overwhelmed with nostalgia you wait for the phone to ring. Here’s a suggestion – open that family album and read the snippets. That tear glistening in your eye will vanish just as your lips tilt upward with the beginnings of a smile only to end with guffaws of laughter.
