Conversation on a cool morn...

"Your daughter is smart..." That's what everyone tells me. I must say that I do agree to quite an extent. Read on to find out why I had to change my opinion about my stupid little one and suddenly start treating her with more respect.

The conversation began at 6 a.m. when she got up on her own, without me yelling out threats - for a change!

S: Bhow...

Me: Arrey wah! How come you got up on your own?

S: Because I got up (oh wow, I didn't know that!).

Me: Okay, good to know my little girl is growing up and doing things on her own...

S: Geee... what's for breakfast?

Me: I didn't make anything today. I'm packing biscuits, rusks, some murukulu. Will that do? Sorry beta, I couldn't decide what to make because just yesterday you had noodles. And I had no energy to make upma or roti. :(

S: It's okay amma... Whatever you packed is enough.

Five minutes later:

S: Amma, actually don't send me to school today no please!

Me: Why?

S: Because I've cold and I am coughing also. And it's raining no.

Me: It's okay. Your cold and cough are not severe. You don't have fever anyway! You'll be fine by afternoon. And you don't have school tomorrow and the day after... :) Now get going if you don't want to miss the bus.

Little S reluctantly brushes teeth, has a bath, wears uniform and shoes, drinks Boost, gets her pigtails tied, and is all set to go. So we pick up her bag and water bottle and off we go downstairs. Then, We wait in the rain for her bus! (sung in the same tune as I walk in the rain by your side!)

And our conversation continues...

S: Maybe we don't have school today.

Me: Why shouldn't you have school?

S: Because it's raining.

Me: So? If they start giving you a holiday each time it rains, you won't have school at all the whole of the rainy season...

S: Good only no, amma.

Me: But you just had a lot of holidays in summer!

S: Yes, but I want holidays in rainy season also.

Me: If they close the school during summer because it's hot, in rainy season because it's pouring heavily, and in winter because it's very cold, no school in Orissa will run. How will you complete your syllabus then?

S: It's okay amma. They should open the school in summer and winter but close it in rainy season. Even if it's hot, we can switch on the fan in the classroom and it'll be airy. In winter, we can switch off the fans. But I think they should give holidays in rainy season so we don't have to wear raincoat and we won't get wet.

Me: Hmmmm !! (Now, can I beat the logic?)

S's attention is suddenly caught by a crow on a ledge in the second floor of our apartment complex. She's, as always, lost in thought for a while before framing her question, logic or whatever thoughts are passing through her wonderful mind, and then she was out with her observations...

S: Amma, look at that crow. It is also trying to escape from the rain. But why is it sitting alone?

Me: Huh?

S: It could have brought its babies also no? Sad no... the baby crows will get wet in the rain and the mother is sitting away from rain.

Me: How do you know it's the mother of those baby crows? Also, how will it bring all the babies here? They are still small and aren't flying on their own.

S: But it can bring them one by one, no... (okay baby, got it!)

Me: I don't know...

S: Or maybe it covered the nest with something so that the babies don't get wet (Wow, why didn't I think of that?).

Me: Maybe!

S: (spots her bus at a distance) Amma, will you see when you go back and tell me when I'm back?

Me: What?

S: Whether the nest is covered or no.

Me: Okay, bye beta!

And it was this girl that I was so worried about a while ago, and thought of protecting her innocence. Children these days, I say!