Comes from Maira, my (very curious) 9 year (a few days shy from being a 10 year) old daughter. “Not the one that means who is acting in the movie, the one that spells C-A-S-T-E” , she further explains.
This was while we were watching a, just released, Indian movie yesterday night, however this question was probably still left unanswered(if not doing the rounds) in her mind since the last week, when we watched Shah Rukh’s 2004 movie, Swades.
Isn’t it amazing to see, that curious kids ask these questions, with real ease, innocence and being absolutely unaware about, which of the gazillion complex mechanisms of the society they are knocking the doors of.
She does not have access to a phone right now, so, for now, she stills looks up to us parents for answers of all these big and small questions that she ponders’ on every now and then. And at this age a parent is actually the best way to get a direct, customized and crisp answer, sans all the artificial intelligence excess.
Although I wasn’t looking at her, I can imagine, my wife must be looking at me from the corner of her eye, while she was on the newly acquired “walking pad” doing her 10000 steps a day, waiting eagerly for me to respond with a smirk on her face.
But before getting into my answer, for a split second, I had to, take a pause and think about it. And that’s because I just realized that, the next words coming out of my mouth are going to shape my child’s thought process and outlook towards life and people and maybe towards herself, forever.
Then for another split second, my brain just flashed back the memory of the answer that I got from my mother when I asked her this question, maybe at the same age perhaps. And within that moment, I quickly re-evaluated that answer from my mother for correctness and relevancy vis a vis the actuality and real world experiences gained from life later on.
I also had to ensure, that the content and structure of my answer should be as simple (but informative and accurate) and stress free, as the way in which this question was asked. This will not only set the level of clarity at which she will understand the issue right now, but it will also enable her to explain it to someone later, if needed.
I also had the option to avoid answering (as it wasn’t going to be a quick one) and hush her by making a lame excuse like, many of the un-initiating ones, but that would have discouraged her from coming back and would not have looked very educated on my part as well. Needless to mention, that engaging with her in an intellectual conversation is a delight in itself and is welcome anytime.
My mind was already filling up with cloud of words like scheduled caste, tribe, quota, article, constitution, amendment, states, constituencies, parliament, center, state, Nehru, Ambedkar, Patel and so forth, had no clue of where to begin with.
To be continued..