In Conversation With A Rebel
सुरज में रात नही होता (There is no night in the sun)
She told me pointing the sun between the curtain partitions using her tiny fingers.
Illogical profoundness is what I wanted to call it. I wanted to correct her, but finally, I preferred to stay silent and said something to take the conversation going. I asked “To kisme hoti hai raat (So, where does night belong)”? To which she further replied…. Raat hoti hai.. phele suraj hota hai.. fil raat hoti hai (Night happens, first sun happens, followed by night).
What makes my parenthood going is this impromptu jig where she traverses her path of free imagination and makes feeble attempt to weave them using her limited vocabulary. She uses her facial expressions and little punctuation while delivering those tiny doses of wisdom.
Later that day, I made her fill colors in her drawing sheets. Some drawing book were acquired last month which had pictures coloured in one page and in the next page, boundaries have been drawn and a kid is expected to fill colours looking at the template.
Pointing the red and yellow balloons I asked her which color she needed to fill in? Pat came reply “Gleeen”. I asked why, the balloons in templates are Red and Yellow. She replied “Pal gleen balloon hota hai (But balloons are also of green colours)”. I realised I had a little rebellion by my side, who didn’t want to follow the template. Why should anyone tell her which colour her balloons should be? Fine, point understood. I let her pick the green pencil and fill it the way she wanted.
After few scribbling, she picked up her yellow pencil, gave me a half-smile and said “elllow bhi hota hai”. I can’t help myself smiling back.
Next challenge was to convince her to color within the boundary lines. I held her hands and showed where all she had to color, she made feeble attempts to abide the boundary lines. I met her rebellion eyes and suddenly I wasn’t too sure of introducing her to concepts of “restrictions” and “constraints” at this early stage of her life. I stopped chanting “andar.. andar (inside, inside)”, and let her fingers follow the free flow, crossing the boundaries.
The rebellion was restless by now, following instructions were too tiring for her. She then handed me a red color and asked me to fill the second balloon. Ok, now since this was a colouring session, it didn’t mean I would instruct and she would draw. Table turned, point taken and without much resistance, I colored the next balloon.
Almost every activity is preceded and succeed by jumping and hopping, so was this. Sometimes its restlessness, otherwise celebration. While hopping she pointed her finger to the night sky from the window, and said.. “Mam .. moon.. “, after taking a pause she picked up her white colored pencil from the previously laid mess and continued “Moon me raat hoti hai.. white raat (Moon has night, white night)”.
I put my tiny one to sleep that night remembering her inherent way of challenging the basic purpose of things, said norms and predefined rules. I had started seeing her rebellion steak, the way she questions an activity or constructs a sentence. Exciting times ahead, I told myself while rehearsing my new lessons learned… There is no night in the sun, moon has night.
Amrita Thavrani is a mother to a two year old daughter. Occasionally blogs at amrita.thavrani.com. Say hello to her while strolling at the tweet street @TheSeeSawMother.
