Questions, Fears and Many Answers

After all the fairy tale drama that is ensuing in our life and honestly some of it before  (we- me and the daughter are very melodramatic people) there have been questions and often random statements by Netra that make me wonder how she must have concluded this one or that one. Like when she said very matter-of-factly Love to bhoot hota hai (Love is a ghost) or when the husband and I are arguing heatedly, she will coolly walk up to us and depending on her current favourite, threaten the other one, Main thunder ko bolun ki aapko le jaaye? (Should I tell thundering clouds to take you away for making such ruckus).

She plays with the bottles- her nanhe bachhe- for hours together and can come back with an episode that happened to her in the previous school and ask for an explanation about being bullied or left out of a game in the neighbourhood. These are the ones that I particularly find hard to answer. Human behaviour is difficult to explain, no? But then maybe she can use some advice from  Mark Twain from the book Advice to Little Girls on various other important matters like a pesky mother and her list of chores.

Then there are questions about the universe. Hum kiss cheez se bane hote hain? (What are we made of?) Humko khaanaa kyun khaanaa padta hai? (Why do we have to eat?) I can deal with them, I have studied science. 

Hum apne ghar pe horsie rakh sakte hain? (Can we keep a horse in the house?) Mujhe ek zindaa kutta chahiye, chottaa sa. (I want a dog, alive and small in size.) Animals are not my forte so I leave this to the husband.

Out of many things that Mon Cheri stumbles upon during the course of day varies. When the question will be popped, no one can predict. I try my level best to answer everything and not get worked up by the fury of her questioning when she gets really charged up about the subject but there are times and demands that irk me. I dont want to instill in her any fear about questioning or life. About life and its fears in the offing I read to her this poem by Maya Angelou who says she wrote it “for all children who whistle in the dark and who refuse to admit that they’re frightened out of their wits”:

Life Doesn’t Frighten Me

Shadows on the wall

Noises down the hall

Life doesn’t frighten me at all

Bad dogs barking loud

Big ghosts in a cloud

Life doesn’t frighten me at all

Mean old Mother Goose

Lions on the loose

They don’t frighten me at all

Dragons breathing flame

On my counterpane

That doesn’t frighten me at all.

I go boo

Make them shoo

I make fun

Way they run

I won’t cry

So they fly

I just smile

They go wild

Life doesn’t frighten me at all.

Tough guys fight

All alone at night

Life doesn’t frighten me at all.

Panthers in the park

Strangers in the dark

No, they don’t frighten me at all.

That new classroom where

Boys all pull my hair

(Kissy little girls

With their hair in curls)

They don’t frighten me at all.

Don’t show me frogs and snakes

And listen for my scream,

If I’m afraid at all

It’s only in my dreams.

I’ve got a magic charm

That I keep up my sleeve

I can walk the ocean floor

And never have to breathe.

Life doesn’t frighten me at all

Not at all

Not at all.

Life doesn’t frighten me at all.

I don't think she understand much of it right now but I think this will be our 'If' - THE parental advice- for the nearby times to come.

And to answer her questions or to pacify me when the next time she says Love to bhoot hai, I must remember to peek inside a book called Big Questions from Little People.