365 DAYS 365 TALES

Questions children ask

'Mom! Shall we read Feluda now?' my daughter asked me.

This question was a very odd question because it came from a seven year old kid, in 2014. And to the best of my knowledge, the books of Feluda were written probably before I was born.

It all started with me, being a bookworm. I just couldn't stay without books in my immediate vicinity. My daughter got bitten by the same bug and she loved listening to the stories. The thing was, she loved it when I read the stories to her. She got bored of all the 'kiddish' (her description. Not mine!) books and wanted to read something that I liked reading.

And so enter Satyajit Ray's Feluda. The Adventures of Feluda were written by the master Film Director Satyajit Ray, for children, in Bengali. The translations were immensely enjoyable with the narration never slacking. The reason I enjoyed them so much was that it was a 'clean' mystery. No femme fatale or anything diabolic and it still had never failed to entertain me.

And so we started. I was reading 'The criminals of Kathmandu'. There was a particular scene when there was mention of LSD, (It is Lysergic Acid Diethyleamide and it is a powerful drug which causes hallucinations, in case you are wondering) when I suddenly stopped. I was genuinely worried that I was telling my daughter something that she need not know right now.

'What is LSD?' she asked me.

Reluctantly I told her what it was.

And much to my horror for the next five minutes there was no conversation from my daughter. (That is practically unheard of. We have a saying that in case my daughter does not talk for more than two minutes, she is probably asleep.)

I found that my daughter was very much awake when after much frowning she asked me. 'Is LSD something like alcohol?'

I blinked, staring at her. (How she knows about alcohol and its side effects is another story, involving a broken remote control and the TV) 

Then I nodded. 'Something slightly worse!'

She nodded her head and then asked me. 'Where do you get it?'

Ok, I am really worried now. 'Why?' I crocked. Too many unwanted graphic images were already filling my mind.

'Oh! I just want to take all the LSD and dump it inside the ocean!' She informed me. 'So that no one can ever use it...'

I admit it. I was rendered speechless for the next five minutes.

I was too busy having a brain wave. By nature, mothers (and fathers) assume the worst which leads us to hide many facts from children, or tell them such blatant lies that I was very sure that even kids must realize that it must be a lie.

I think we were wrong in that assumption and that we were wrong in lying. It was probably the lying which bothered the kids more. It might make the kid uneasy thinking that there was something wrong with the question.

Trusting the kid enough and treating her like an adult and explaining the real facts would probably save a hell of a lot trouble later on. And something told me that explaining the true facts would help the kid in trusting us and help them in becoming more responsible...

But then there was always a line we all draw. Somethings were definitely not meant for children. What do we do in such a case?

I had to deal with such an issue, two years back...

After her marriage my sister had once came to my house.

'Mom!' My daughter whispered quietly. 'Why is she suddenly so fat?'

I debated for a few seconds and decided on the truth.

'There is a baby in her stomach!' I told her.

My daughter was so shocked that she was unable to keep whispering. 'She ate a baby?' she asked incredulously.

Ok...That didn't go so well...

Before things got out of hand, I got into a hasty explanation.

'You also came from mummy's tummy! After mummy married daddy, you were born!' 

'How?' my daughter asked ignoring my sister snickering behind me.

'I will tell you when you become bigger! I promise!' I told my daughter because I did not believe that five was an age for these things. My daughter looked at me for a full minute and then nodded. Exactly what she thought was something I did not know.

But I didn't know that she would ask me the question again. I thought my daughter knew that the question she had asked was not wrong, just that she was not ready for the answer...not just yet.... and more importantly she knew that I had not lied to her.

⭐⭐⭐

SAKrishnan (12/03)