“How did you know
‘A’ is written like ‘A’?“
- “Umm”
- “Don’t ask silly
questions!”
- “Because I say
so!”
There is nothing
more irritating than having questions in the mind; the ones without an answer;
especially the ones that make the elders upset, especially those. Raja had lots
of things going on in him. But the smart boy that he was, he knew when to stop
an argument. He would ask but not insist. He would nod in obedience or just
flash his biiiig smile.
And so it went on
day after day.
On a cloudy day,
Raja was trying to catch a budhi mai (dandelion seed). The
seed was more impatient than Raja. It flew from the road, under the rose bush,
across the toy car … finally resting on the window of the old house.
The old house was a
shabby place which would have made an excellent playground. An uncle lived
there all by himself and wore pretty much the same sort of clothes that Raja
wore and absolutely loved. Red t-shirt and orange Bermudas or white vest with
checks on shorts. Comfortable and stylish clothes.
Uncle used to
colour all day. Raja envied uncle so much for this. Imagine colouring all the
time. Uncle didn’t even make drawing of his school or hut or flower. He would
sometimes dip his hands in colour and have fun on paper. What fun!
So, when the
dandelion seed got stuck on uncle’s window Raja just had to get it. And off he
went.
Obviously Raja bumped
into uncle. Why would Raja stop at the window, catch the dandelion seed and go
away? Anyone who knew Raja would understand that he had to know ‘what’s
inside’.
And the next thing
you know, Raja and uncle were sharing a chocolate cream biscuit with chilled
Pepsi. Ah! Heaven.
Raja asked uncle,
“Do you know lots of things?”
Uncle smiled and
said, “No. In fact I know nothing. But I love to know more and more things.”
“So do I.”
“You do?” Uncle
laughed and said, “You know Raja my little friend, you are better than grownups.
So nice to talk to someone who understands what you are saying.”
Raja didn’t
understand this sentence but he could not tell uncle that, could he? Praises
worked with Raja 100 %.
Raja looked around
the room and found it pretty much like his own if Mumma didn’t clean it after
every two hours. He noticed a drawing with two circles; just two circles on a
whole page.
“What’s that?”
“Oh that….that’s my
unfinished masterpiece. What does it look like to you?”
Raja re-looked at
the drawing and then spoke after a minute, “Once I wanted strawberry but Mumma
gave me mango. But I still wanted strawberry so she said it’s a yellow
strawberry. But when I ate it I found out that it was actually mango. So I
threw it out of my mouth. In the plate it looked like exactly what your
painting is looking like. What I’m saying is that the shape is just the same
but the colour is different.”
Uncle put his
finger on his mouth, trying to look serious while stifling his laughter and
said, “You are right. The society conditions us to accept what we don’t want
and what we want, the society can’t accept. The dilemma. The urge. The
rebellion. Everything comes out. Brilliant. You are my rainfall!”
“But…my name is
Raja, not Rainfall.”
“No, no. Raja is
what you have been named. Rainfall is what you name yourself. Isn’t that good?”
Raja nodded.
“Can I ask
you something?”
“Anything.”
“How did you know
‘A’ is written like ‘A’?“
“Well, we
are told it’s written like that by people who were told by others. And a lot of
people keep telling the same thing. And so we write ‘A’ like ‘A’ and not ‘B’ or
‘C’. It’s simple actually. Just do what the others are doing until you do
something that the others will also do. Understood?”
Raja
giggled. And so did uncle.
In his
little mind, Raja now felt that his question was not silly and at least had an
answer. In his grownup mind, Uncle now felt the need to paint without a heavy
heart and with a free mind. Both had learnt from each other. Both were teaching
each other. Both didn’t know this.
