... the village children have set out from the village to Madras. Yesterday as we were deciding on who all will come, my daughter kept insisting on one child Shyamala. When I got exasperated at her insistence she explained.
Why the last time the children came, Shyamala did not. She could not because her mother has kept aside some little travel money for the trip. Shyamala had packed her cover with her clothes to catch the early morning bus with the others. Early morning when her mother looked for the money in thr rice pot it was not there. Her father has taken it out and got drunk. I was anyway paying for the the trip, but the mother did not want to send the child without anything. She is like that - very dignified. A child's heartbreak at a having to drop out of a trip thus and see all the others go, only a child can understand. When this is the only trip ever made.
After that I spoke to the mother yesterday, insisted she send Shyamala, and took great pains to explain that no money would be needed. The mother gladly agreed to send her.
At the beach at sunrise Sasi tells me, 'If there were some huge fans in the sky the waves would rise higher.' I asked him, 'Why are there waves ?'.
Sasi - 'Because of the winds.'
i said - 'No, the moon pulls the water !'.
He looked at me wide eyed, ' ... the moon pulls up the water, and then pushes it down again.'
I let it be - I did not feel the theory of gravitation was very important compared to the magic of the dawn, the rising sun, and the sea.
Newton's laws or atomic structure are as seminal as the myths of the moon fairies in my humble opinion. To be honest, I love my myths and fairy stories more ... and I would wish all children to retain the magic of those dreams into adulthood.
(Some children from my village came to Chennai ... )
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