The world I know

I read somewhere that small children particularly toddlers are acutely aware of their size compared with the 'giants' around them and may have fears springing from their imagination which are associated with this difference in size. I was reminded of this when one day D and I, forgetting that it was a Sunday (for we never head to those mad places called malls on weekends), went to what was effectively a congregation of the whole world and its family at a city mall.

This was also the day when, while dressing Varun, I was telling him where we were going in an attempt to make him wear his clothes a little faster (just the knowledge that he is changing to go out makes him react a little more favourably to the act. Read: he becomes a docile kitten). So, in the midst of wiggling and scurrying away the tenth time, he suddenly became absolutely still on hearing the word 'mall'. He lay still and observed my lip movements while I slipped on his t-shirt. While I was wondering what had brought about this miracle, he sprang it at me.

"MO!", he said! And since then he curls his lower lip inward very consciously and brings out both lips in an exaggerated pout to reproduce the syllable which delights us so. Now, all this is very nice till he decides to say this lovely word at midnight when we are trying to get him to sleep or have taken him for a drive since he is not sleeping. Small formalities like time of day or night barely matter and he decides that it is time to 'tata' and 'mo' (get out of the house and go to the mall). In fact, he even remembers many days after when asked, "Where did you go to the other day, Varun?" Pat comes, "Mo!". It doesn't matter that 'the other day' we went to the local market, or to the doc., or to the grocery shop, or for a drive. That is the place 'he' went to since that is the place with so many lights!

So, on this one day when we accidentally landed up at the world's congregation in the mall which is just about capable of accomodating all the citizens of Liechstenstein, Varun reacted not with fear but with complete curiosity. He refused to let us carry him and was insistent that we let him down and that he should run around in the madness - which he did for a while, with us on his heels for I was quite sure of a stampede in this shopping mecca. I wondered what he thought of this land of 'giants'.

He was quite clearly not intimidated. In fact, he had a ball. He didn't have a care in the world about bumping into someone or knowing where he wanted to go. He just wanted to run. He managed to weave his way around all the huge figures around him, with us following close behind. It was then that a very tall lady brushed past him and nearly made him stumble and fall. I was temporarily irritated by her lack of not just caution but also courtesy. She was tall and was only looking straight ahead unaware of the little figure close to her heels. I caught a momentarily shaken Varun take a long look up to see who had nearly kicked him out of the way.

Watching from the sidelines, looking down to where he was standing looking up at and walking away backwards from the woman who had scared him a little in his trusting walk through the giant world, it struck me how, at times, I see only what's on our eye level, preferring to live in the world I know, occasionally forgetting to slow down a while, bend on my knees and take a peek into Varun's world - from where he can see best.