Am stuck in a bad traffic jam. (are there good ones?)
I blame the heavy shopping bags for my decision to drive the 750 mts to the supermarket. The traffic which is always bumper to bumper, is bumper to bumper, window to window and door to door today.
Pearl of Wisdom 1 : ‘Switch off the ignition. Don’t you know you can save upto 10% fuel by keeping the engine turned off' says my 8 year old companion S.
I am proud of her. I oblige.
Traffic inches ahead. In the 2 ½ nanoseconds that I take to restart the car, the restless jerk behind me starts to honk. It seems like the longest 2 ½ nanoseconds of my life. Doesn’t he have an 8 year old in his car to explain the ill effects of noise pollution on the fragile environment?
It is 2 days to Holi. Daughter and friends have pledged to celebrate a water-less Holi.
What! Holi! Without water?
I was raised in Madras where Holi is not a recognised festival, but I have spent enough time in Bombay now to know all about rain dances, pool dunks and the full lyrics of ‘rang barse’.
Pearl of Wisdom 2 : ‘Of course, we can’t play with water. Do you know the kids in our neighbourhood slum pay Rs 12 for a bucket of water that an entire family of 5 has to share?’ she says.
The children want only home-made, non-toxic vegetable colours. There goes my holi – I could see myself spending the next two days preparing vials of colour out of spinach, beetroot, turmeric and anything else I am able to lay my hands on in the kitchen.
It’s the same story with Diwali that just went by. A small fortune has been spent on crackers by uncle and aunt who are thrilled to have us over for the day.
8 year old is aghast.
Pearl of Wisdom 3 : ‘Do you know they employ children in those cracker factories? And what about the pollution?’
Now I am aghast. When we were 8, our only worry was whose door front will have a greater pile of rubble the morning after diwali (our social standing depended on it). I probably couldn’t even spell pollution back then.
Now, I'm a mixed bag of emotions. Is it wrong to want my children to enjoy their childhood the way we did – footloose and fancy free? Later that night, as I'm deep in thought about how to balance this with their social consciousness, I hear a loud wail coming from the kids’ room.
I hope they weren’t fighting over who will save mother earth from the evil grip of mankind.
Thankfully, one has kicked the other over a Barbie doll. The victim has packed her life’s belongings, namely 3 stuffed toys, 1 musical pencil case and a bar of kitkat to shift to my room permanently. Right then she didn’t look like she cared if the environment collapsed or the entire water from the ocean evaporated.
I was overjoyed. Yippie! My kids had a kiddy fight! ‘Aalll izz well after all’. I make a high five in the air with god almighty!
Pearl of Wisdom 4 : Kids love the environment; but they love their barbie dolls more. Thank god for that!
excellent. the pearls coming out of s as well as the setting
ReplyDeletenice
ReplyDeleteI can imagine.... my little one tells me to switch off the light because we will waste electricity. Story of our lives is that our mothers told us this when we were kids and now our kids tell us the same thing :-)
ReplyDeletethe moral kalai is that our generation will never learn!
ReplyDelete