THE WORLD THROUGH CHILDREN’S EYES

By SHAGORIKA EASWAR

Dr Vicki Bismilla has written often about how children play with other children, marvelling at the differences they notice.

“They touch each others’ hair or ask why one is brown and the other white with all the innocence in their hearts, uncorrupted by prejudice.”

The thing to note here is that they are not colour blind, they can see the difference, but it matters as little as one boy’s blue backpack and another’s red.

There are many important lessons for us in a child’s world view, and not only in things like we are all equal, but simple observations that have one go, “Now why didn’t I think of that?”

Here’s an example:

Once I tried to tempt the littlest member of the family into taking another croissant.

He declined politely, but firmly. “No, thank you, I don’t want food karma.”

For which an explanation was required. Stat. “Nat Geo Kids says if you overeat, you will get sleepy and if I get sleepy, I will not finish my class work and then I will have home work. That’s food karma.”

If only I could see the consequences of another rasgulla that clearly!

Another time, when he wanted me to remove the crusts in a sandwich I’d made for him, I told him that the crust was my favourite part of bread. That when we were kids, my brother and I both wanted the end slice of the loaf – thick and all crust.

“Why didn’t you take one end slice each?” he asked.

And I sat back and wondered, why didn’t we? Not because we couldn’t have, or wouldn’t have been allowed such a simple indulgence, but because one just began at one end of the loaf and worked one’s way to the other end. You didn’t slice off both ends at once!

Or the time someone gifted me a giant box of chocolates and I did the “Life is like a box of chocolates” impersonation of Tom Hanks in Forest Gump. Which, of course, had to be explained. Ignoring the part about the unknowns that life may throw at one, he said, “But you do know what’s in a box of chocolates. They all come with this paper that tells you what each one is.”

And just like that, the timeless saying became a tad dated!

I learnt only very recently that the box used in the film didn’t even contain chocolates – that the prop was weighed down with sand. Maybe Hanks’ dialogue should have been “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what it’s going to fetch” seeing as how Ripley Entertainment acquired it for $25,000.

But that’s neither here nor there.

Children also see nature through fresh eyes. As young parents, we were too focused on whether our sons were reaching their milestones – crawling, walking, talking. And oh, the angst over vocabulary! Parents can be so competitive. When our older son had six words (which included sounds that only my husband and I could interpret), I’d meet ladies at the playground who claimed their kids were born reciting Shakespeare.

Now, however, we are far more relaxed and thus able to fully enjoy each stage of our grandson. The way his vocabulary shot up exponentially, the way he begins certain sentences with, “You have inspired me to” or “I would recommend”.

Or the way he looks at and redefines nature for me. A couple of years ago, a squirrel scampered past while we were on a video call. I jumped up to shoo it away from my precious tomato plants. They attack only the green tomatoes and then discard the chewed up remains, I grumbled, when I returned to resume our chat.

Perhaps they were mom squirrels, he said, and were testing the tomatoes to see if they were safe for their babies.

Which was something I hadn’t considered, I admitted.

But why green tomatoes, in that case? Why not just take a few ripe ones and leave the rest so we could all enjoy some? Because right next to the hard green ones were sun-ripened treats.

“Because maybe squirrels are colour blind,” he explained patiently. “Some animals see colours differently, you know.”

Which, I knew, but had never thought to apply it to the marauding squirrels. This required a Google check right away and he was right.

While squirrels can differentiate red and green from other colours, they find it hard to differentiate between the two.

Also, they might perceive red as a threat. And all these years I’ve thought squirrels were just nuts!

“Do you have any other problems?” he asked, when I was done telling him I had learned something new.

In a space where they know they won’t be dismissed or laughed at, children share their views confidently and we, the adults, are the richer for that experience.

As Dr Bismilla says, “If only we can learn to ask children for advice regularly, what a sweet world this would be!”