The questions she asks me..

 She goes on non stop. Its questions about the ads on the TV, the food that is served, the people I talk to on the phone, the maids I crib about..there is a question for every occasion.

 Its only after she says her "gud night, Jai Shree Krishna, sweet dreams" and shuts her eyes is she done. Thats my 5 years and 3 month old daughter. All through my pregnancy, I read about stoking a child's curiosity and answering their questions. Never say "no", never sit them down with a "dont ask such questions"..

 So when my tiny daughter..just about managing a sentence or so started asking questions..I patted myself on the back and answered..well its been 5 years to the day and I am still answering questions..

 While her questions have not tempered down with time, my enthusiasm surely has..

 Off late the questions she asks have only gotten trickier to answer, its also made me realise that now is the time that as a parent I need to choose the path I walk on. Will I always have it in me to answer these questions or will I at some time choose the easier way of putting a stop to questions that make me uncomfortable to answer. Well, honestly I dont know - but I will try to walk this tight rope for long as possible. These are the questions that somehow as kids, we intrinsically knew never to ask. 

• Where does a baby come from?
• When will I have a baby?
• Is the navel more important than a vagina? (well this question happened soon after I thought it was important to teach her about her anatomy clearly and not refer to body parts by strange names.)
• If Dada is the oldest in the family, when will he die? How do I explain that this obviously does not work on the FIFO system
• Once people die what happens to them? this one I have already bungled up, since I told her that they are reborn as children in the same family. So when someone close in the family passed away a couple of years back - she wanted to know who they were reborn as!!
• On seeing a soap commercial on TV - why are Uncle and Aunty having bath together? water conservation I wanted to say.
• When she saw the prince kiss the princess on the lips  - she asked why cant mamas and babies kiss like that?

Another realisation, has been my inadequacy to answer questions with the apt information - and this I find easier to address thanks to Google. Which parent wants to feel intellectually inadequate in front of their child?

She asks;

• What causes tsunamis and can it reach our house?
• How are clouds formed?
• Earthquake kaise aata hain?
• Do all gods raise mountains? this was after consecutive tales of Hanuman and Krishna
• So if Radha is not Krishna's wife - who is she and why do temples not have his wife's pictures?

 Per se these questions dont pose any difficulty, but when you are speaking to a 5 year old - there is so much moderation, decoding and simplifying that you need to do in your head that it makes it a task in itself. 

Most importantly, children need answers which are black or white, they need to be yes or no, right or wrong, good or bad. The "grey" answers are yet not something that they can take as an answer.

But, Ira - i must say that every time you ask me something I learn a little bit more. What I dont know I find out (thanks Google), what makes me uncomfortable I learn to conquer, What I cant answer now, maybe completely I mark in my head as "to be answered later" and be as honest as I can in the present. But I surely dont want you to stop, I dont want to judge your curiosity as right or wrong.

So keep asking and I promise to answer it with sincerity for as long as I can.