Kiddish is Adultish

“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.