Innocence... where has it all gone.. ?
The innocence of a child is one of the most beautiful miracles of life. Only a child who has no knowledge of the world, and who thinks you do, can question you the way they do and think of possibilities that in our world seem so impossible.
Makes me wonder- what happens to us once we grow up? Where do we lose our child-like innocence ? Wonder why do we end up thinking that we "know" everything ? Wonder why do we end up thinking that we know - "whats right" , "whats wrong", "what works" , "what doesnt" ? Wonder when and where do we lose our curiosity and the silly inquisitiveness that we had in abundance as a child ?
I had been to my friend's place on a Ganesh Chaturti. The whole family was getting ready for the morning pooja. The pooja room, next to the kitchen was fully decorated and my friend's mother seemed to be in control of the situation in the house. She was instructing all of us on what to do and what not to do. I was given a special task too. I was given a pile of thin, long grass blades and asked to make smaller piles of 5 grass blades each. She asked me to make some 21 piles of them.
It was a simple and long task. So I asked my friend's 5 year old daughter to sit along with me and help me out. She readily agreed. So chatting and playing along in one of the bedrooms, both of us set about doing the smaller piles of grass blades. When we were about 15 piles done, the original pile of blades of grass was almost getting over.
So, pointing in the direction of the kitchen, I told my friend's daughter - Could you go and find out if this many smaller piles are enough for pooja ?
The girl, for some reason seemed amazed and surprised at the task. With a child like curiosity, she looked at me with big round eyes and says - Sachchi ? ( Meaning - "Really?" in english ).
One cant always tell what amazes a child - so I did not bother too much about it - I was only pleased to be part of her amazement and replied with a nice smile - Sachchchchi ! ( Reaaaaally ! )
She seemed happy about the task given to her. She got up, picked up the plate on which we were working and walked towards the direction of the kitchen - but as she was nearing the kitchen - she took the diversion towards the pooja room.
Uh ! I could see that there was no one in the pooja room. So I was curious as to what was she up to.
I followed her and once inside the pooja room, I asked her kindly with a smile- what are you doing here ?
She seemed surprised. Defiant and slightly surprised, she replied with a question mark on her face - You only told me to ask na ! I have come to ask .
My turn to be amused now . I asked her lovingly - There is no one here. Whom are you going to ask ?
What she said next left me with utter surprise and overwhelming love. With an embarrassed but beautiful smile on her face, she looks at me and says- I have come to ask God if these piles of blades are enough !
I did not know what to say for some time. Apparently, when I had been pointing towards the kitchen, she had thought that I was pointing to God's room.
I was totally stumped.
Took me a whole minute to recover back but when I did - I could only smile at her and envelop her in a huge bear hug.
