It has just been one of those days. You know, the kind where we have far too many things to do, but just not enough time. In other words, a regular Monday.
Fortunately, our three-year-old felt that he needed some time to play with his toys without any adult supervision. So, thanking my lucky Monday stars, I sat a little distance away from him, plugged in my headphone and continued to work on an article that I needed to submit.
After about half-hour, I took a break and checked in on him. This is the scene I found.
Naturally, I asked him what was going on. The conversation sort of unfolded like this.
Me: Looks great, Rishi! What’s going on?
Ri: Animals. In a circle. Party
Me: That’s pretty awesome! What’s the crocodile doing in the middle?
Ri: Alligator. Not crocodile.
Me: *feels a bit rattled at being corrected by a three-year old* Ok, Alligator. What’s it doing in the middle?
Ri: *thinks* Singing!
Me: What’s it singing?
Ri: Old McDonald had a farm. *and then proceeds to sing out the entire song with reference to each animal – complete with sound effects for each. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that he probably wouldn’t find a lion or cheetah on a farm, but why hamper the child’s creativity, eh? The world will do that anyway at a later stage *
After a few minutes,
Me: *claps enthusiastically partly in happiness because he seems to grown up suddenly; partly because I just want to get the song over with it*
Ri: *finishes the song and looks at me expectantly*
Me: *takes the cue* Very good, Rishi! Now, Papa has work to do *slowly gets up to get back to my laptop*
Ri: Papa! Sit!
Me: *a bit dazed by the intensity of the order, but I sit down on the floor beside him*
Rishi starts to arrange the animals in a circle around us. So now, we’re in the place of the crocodile …wait, no alligator…and the animals are sort of staring at us. And I can assure, toy animal or not, it is extremely unsettling to see yourself being surrounded by animals of various shapes, sizes and types.
Me: Erm..Rishi? What’s going on? *hopes against hope that he doesn’t ask me to sing for the animals now*
Ri: *looks at me with his trademark ‘I’m-cute-and-I-know-it’ look and smiles*
We live in a zoo! Animals, Papa, Mumma, Me – we are family!
For a kid who has trouble at times differentiating between a diamond and triangle or an apple and an orange, he sure says oddly enlightening things at times. It’s like living with a three-feet eccentric little buddha!
Note:
It might be worthwhile adding this note that he recently visited Bannerghatta National Park and was smitten by all the animals. Now, I’m not sure if this ‘we are family’ is an indication that we probably need to look into investing in a large wildlife park. Though, I am struggling to come to terms with the fact that he inadvertently put us in the middle and then made all the animals look at us as if there was some sort of role reversal in progress. Where animals were free and humans were caged. Of course, I’m over thinking it, but the kid sure accidentally makes a valid point. Even if accidentally.
So if his teacher is reading this, I’m asking you, ‘So, what if he doesn’t like to sit in a place and write stuff. Maybe he’s cut out for something different?’
I Wrote Those - by Sid Balachandran 
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