The children were excited about their trip to Kerala. They were going to meet their friends in Thrissur after 8 months. They wanted me to come too but I had to finish some work and couldn't go with them so they went with their mother. Whenever the children called from Kerala and asked me when I would come my reply would be that I would come as soon as my work finishes and when they asked when that would be I usually told them that the work was a mountain and I was only a small mouse making a small hole in its very bottom. Well after the first few days in Kerala, Aditi and Srikant (13 and 9 respectively) stopped asking. Only 7 year old Dinkar persisted, calling up every day or so to give me the latest news and to ask me when I would come. 14th April was Vishu and my brother and sister and our family were all converging to my parents place in Kerala. Everybody except me! So I decided to surprise them all by dropping in unannounced for the Vishu lunch. I caught an early morning flight and after a full nine hours in various modes of transport (Taxi, plane, auto, bus, camel, elephant... Oh sorry no camel and elephant:-)) I found myself outside the boundary wall of our house in Kerala. I called up Dinkar on my cellphone. And as this is climax of this story let me switch to drama-mode to make it, well you know, more dramatic:
Me: Hello Dinkar how are you?
Dinkar: Fine.
Me: Have you had the Vishu lunch already?
Dinkar: Not yet. They are setting all the banana leaves for it.
Me: What are you doing?
Dinkar: Playing with my new car that Saniatta gave me today.
Me: Oh! What car is that?
Dinkar: It is a Volkswagen Taureg.
Me: Show me!
Dinkar: (Short silence and then...) How?
Me: Just walk out to the gate and just show me no.
Dinkar: Oh! (Sound of phone getting hurriedly cut)
Srikant: (To Dinkar running out from the house towards the gate) Where are you going?
Dinkar: (Not stopping running) Naana is standing outside the gate! Come quickly!
Srikant convinced by the urgency in the voice joins in the race and they reach the gate together to find me standing crouched behind the wall.
I don't know why but I think there is some big important point hiding here that I cant put my finger on. Is it the fact that Dinkar had no doubt in his mind that his father was standing outside? And anyway what has all this got to do with homeschooling and the fact that Dinkar has never been inside a school. I can't tell! But I still think there is some important...
(Quickly illustrated by Dinkar)
