I have had
the good fortune of interacting with two little bright sparks of life, Nigel
and Manthan. Both are seven years old and study in class II. Manthan comes for
reading and creative writing and Nigel comes to do his homework. Over the last
few months, I have treasured in my heart snippets of conversations with them.
“Nigel,
complete the sentence – I was angry but……”
“I was angry
but my mother calmed me own.” Wish everyone had such an understanding mother.
“Manthan, give
me a rhyming word for hen.”
“Pen”
I smiled to
myself, he didn’t know what was coming.
“Great, now
make a sentence using both the words”. I waited to see how he’d handle this.
Manthan
thought for a few seconds and said in a calm, measured voice “The hen found a
pen”.
“Nigel, have
you seen ‘Born Free’?”
“No, what is
it about?”
“It’s about
a couple in Africa who find a lion cub. They name her Elsa and keep her with
them as a pet. Later they have to let her out into the jungle when she grows
up”
“Oh… it’s an
emotional movie” an unusual response.
Manthan
loves drawing. At the end of the class he sits at the table and sketches in his
book. One day he drew a series of aliens.
“This is a
baby alien, small and soft. This is a grown up alien and this is an old and
angry alien, maybe as old as you”
I was taken
aback. “Am I so old?”
“ You’re
older than my parents, right?”
“Right, but
am I angry?” I asked, tongue in cheek, waiting to see how he’d extricate
himself from this one.
“Are you an
alien?” That was very neatly done, hats off to you, kiddo.
“Nigel and
Manthan, write five sentences on how you would feel if you visited Charlie’s
chocolate factory”.
Both
scribbled away furiously.
“Awesome, I
would love it, I would eat my fill of chocolates” and so on. Nigel added one
sentence “If anyone me asked for a thousand rupees, I’d run away fast”. So
you’ve realized the sad truth of life that nothing comes for free.
“Manthan,
write a small story on why the giraffe has such a long neck”
Manthan
pondered over it and finally wrote the following.
“The giraffe’s
master told it to go and hang on the tree by its neck. The giraffe did so every
day and that is why it’s neck grew so long” Well done.
“Nigel,
write a story on why the peacock has such a colourful tail”
Nigel
sprawled on the sofa and wrote a paragraph in his untidy scrawl. I tried to
read it but couldn’t. So he offered to read it out himself, “filling in the
blanks”
The idea he
expressed was that the peacock flew so high in the sky that its tail touched
the rainbow and that is why it was so colourful. This thought hasn’t failed to touch
the hearts of all those who’ve heard it.
God bless
you, kiddos, keep it up.
