Often we hear people say, ‘behave responsibly and not like a child’ or ‘please behave according to your age.’ As I had stated once before in one of my blogs, No Formalities Please, we should behave like children many times in our lives. The way they speak and act innocently, we have a lot to learn from them.

Yesterday when I was playing with my three year old son, some random game in his imaginary world (the corona effect that we have more time for family and children), I was a poisonous snake following him in to the jungle. He ran for his life as the poisonous serpent followed him.

After a long chase, he was cornered against a big rock. he had no where to go and the monster snake had him at its mercy. The snake laughed aloud like any traditional villain would do and hissed. The child was scared and cried for mercy, ‘One minute dear good snake, I need to tell you something.’ (These are not his wordings exactly but close to what I have understood from his babbled speech; mothers and grand mothers are experts in translation)

But, the monster would not listen anything. The snake hissed again and jumped on to the poor child. All of a sudden the child pressed a magic button and he turned in to a jumping spider, and climbed on to the top of the rock. The snake’s head got smashed against the rock and snake became unconscious.

I was lied on the bed head down and said, ‘Unni! the bad snake is lying unconscious and bleeding. You have won (he always wins). Now, what are you going to do?’

‘I am going to put bandage on to the snake’s head and take it to hospital. Now, the snake has become a noble one,’ he said without a second’s wait and rubbed his tender soft hands on to my forehead.

I sat on the bed and didn’t say anything for some time. ‘Oh, is that what happens in your world? In my world we would have killed the snake or ran away leaving it to die.’ Of course I didn’t say this to my child. I just said, ‘Good Boy! Thank you so much.’

I kissed him on his head. He pushed me, wiped away the kiss (only his mother has the right to kiss him, all others are trespassers) and looked at me wondering what was that for. I smiled and kissed him again, and he wiped it off, again.