Wednesday, October 31, 2007

A world full of questions ?


------------
"Who is the winner?”. This is the question of five year old Sidu after the first ball of a cricket match being bowled. I tried to answer him by saying that it will be known only after some time. He was quiet for about two minutes and again the same question.“Who won? ". I explained him the arithmetic behind runs and wickets. But he is not satisfied. I was left incapable of explaining what is cricket to a five year old. In the middle of tension of Indo-pak final that was very hot to handle. Every time we get excited over proceedings of the match it made him to ask the same questions innumerable times tirelessly.
--------------
enthukku ? - blend of telugu,tamil and malayalam in that word. This is the most repeated word by the five year old. Most of his questions are absolutely simple so that we do not have answers. Orange na ? - In response to my reply that the color of the doll's linen is orange.
----------------
Every time a visitor arrives, it is time for live performance of oratory and gk skills of Sidu.

"sollu who is the prime minster of India ? "
"poona thatha" he replies and We are very much bewildered as much as the visitor.
"paru ne correcta sonna you will get a choclate"
"choclate enga ?"
"kadaikku poi na vangi tharen"
"ippove venum"
" appo sollu ... man .... " Sidu says,
" poona thatha " again enjoying the bewilderment of the visitor and anxiety of his parents.

Visitor has got himself into the whirl of making Sidu say the name of the prime Minster. All his efforts would not budge Sidu. He extends his arm, tries to wrestle Sidu closer to him and touch his chin and cheeks and will plead.
" sollu ma yaru namma prime minster appa sonnalay ".
Sidu would jerk himself off from the grip of the visitor and grab the toy that is lying on the floor.
--------------------------

He is uncontrollable on seeing an expanse good enough he judges to have a sprint. Sprint would be endless from one end to the other till the next distraction. When few children join, it is a picture of chaos. Characters on the television channels reincarnate as the Sidu and neighborhood children. Re-enactments of recent episodes of the popular cartoons continue in absolute mayhem, till voice of elders would bring it to an end.
--------------------------

I think there is an innate script inside every child reminding them to finish first on everything they are up to. Climbing stairs, getting up in the morning, getting into the car first and the list is endless. If I pretend that I have finished ahead of Sidu it will depress him. He would add many more criterions for being declared first which undoubtedly would favour him.
------------------------------
Sprinting inside the house boasts of Sidu's immaculate balance. From the front door he would dash off to kitchen in a spurt follow it by another to reach the living room with unrelenting energy and balance. At times he slips and his recovery depends on if he is being watched or not.
-------------------------------
Ne evlo height ?
Suraj oda height.
How many times you ate?
Suraj ooda neraiya sapten.
Suraj is the declared standard in scheme of anything he wishes to compare with.
He is very happy to take Suraj in his formula 1 car for imaginary(?) rides across plains,fields,mountains. There will be imaginary repairs, fixes, fuel refills each administred with real care and caution. Infact he has a fleet of cars which he parks right next to the main door of the house for visitors to see. Unmindful visitors would stumble on it and will lose balance sometimes.
----------------------------------
He endlessly writes from 1 to 100 on a four squire note. Besides he shows us houses, mountain, trees, rivers, his class room, sun and the moon scrambled one upon the other on a page imbued with plenty of colours. He sometimes wishes to write a few things similar to hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt. There is a fourteen digit number he proudly displays in a piece of paper. He flaunts the paper with an air of caution pointing it out as his visiting card.
----------------------------------
What is your school name?
"Nalaikku school leavu”.

I think I got the answer. It seems irrelevant at first read. But immediacy of world in which Sidu lives makes me feel that answer is relevant. Lack of thought of future, present fills the entire realm of thought of this five year old.
-----------------------------------
Everything he cross checks with mother. From day to day chores to the mysterious arithmetic, Mother gives the panacea.
----------------------------------
As the visitor leaves, Sidu would rush to him and mumble "Manmohan singh” by dragging his shirt. This would delight the visitor to great extremes. If the visitor attempts to pay back for this answer by a tweak in the cheek or a pat in the head, Sidu will not be there. But we can hear him in unison shouting with other children “Power ranger’s mystic force". As his voice echoes on the staircase, a new thrill will mount on us. It would take us years back.

We shall share a sigh, that why do we grow? Why cannot we stay as children?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

5 comments:

Subramaniam Venkataraman said...

What a post.!! Mani.. :-)

Subramaniam Venkataraman said...

This is your best by a large margin. Its got mind, body and the life that make them so spledid. I cant wait to read it a second time... But that would be only after the smile that the first read brought, wears off.
U make me smile everytime you smile. Keep smiling :-) :-)

siva said...

really super...believe me...im still smiling....

Avinash Sekar said...

keep writing da.
and with every credit to you intact, i believe s ramakrishnan has cast his spell on you.. aint i right mani? :-)
keep reading da. it "spends" on you.the profit shows :-)

rakee said...

i have seen your blog its interesting and informative.
I really like the content you provide in the blog.
But you can do more with your blog spice up your blog, don't stop providing the simple blog you can provide more features like forums, polls, CMS,contact forms and many more features.
Convert your blog "yourname.blogspot.com" to www.yourname.com completely free.
free Blog services provide only simple blogs but we can provide free website for you where you can provide multiple services or features rather than only simple blog.
Become proud owner of the own site and have your presence in the cyber space.
we provide you free website+ free web hosting + list of your choice of scripts like(blog scripts,CMS scripts, forums scripts and may scripts) all the above services are absolutely free.
The list of services we provide are

1. Complete free services no hidden cost
2. Free websites like www.YourName.com
3. Multiple free websites also provided
4. Free webspace of1000 Mb / 1 Gb
5. Unlimited email ids for your website like (info@yoursite.com, contact@yoursite.com)
6. PHP 4.x
7. MYSQL (Unlimited databases)
8. Unlimited Bandwidth
9. Hundreds of Free scripts to install in your website (like Blog scripts, Forum scripts and many CMS scripts)
10. We install extra scripts on request
11. Hundreds of free templates to select
12. Technical support by email

Please visit our website for more details www.HyperWebEnable.com and www.HyperWebEnable.com/freewebsite.php

Please contact us for more information.


Sincerely,

HyperWebEnable team
info@HyperWebEnable.com