I don’t like missing Monday Musings. Yet I missed posting last Monday. I have had a full house for 9 days until this Saturday with husband joining in on 21st for a break and brother joining in the next day. The following days were full of action with Papa dearest honouring Dhruv’s long list of ‘places to be visited and delicacies to be relished‘ and with mummy getting tagged along. With not a single day of lying low, it was a lot of fun. At the same time, it was extremely tiring for me since I need solitary confinement for atleast half a day in a week to gather my thoughts.
With Dhruv reeling under the weather over the weekend, I am a scatterbrain. However, I do have an intelligent question to share today. I am terming it intelligent because nobody in the house, neither me nor my parents, had an answer to it and not even The ‘sarvgyani’ Google could offer an answer.
In case you are wondering who was the questioner, then I must tell you there is just one person in our house who has the ability to pin us to the wall with his questions and that person is…I know you are sure by now.
Yesterday night, Dhruv was feeling slightly better and we pursued our bedtime reading session. I was reading Junior Kumbhakarna by Arundhati Venkatesh to him.
The story is about a little boy asking his Appa to tell him the story of Kumbhakarna. Kumbhakarna is a giant demon and he loves to eat. He eats huge quantity of food, equivalent to the meal of 100 men and then he goes off to sleep for many many months. One day, the king (there is no reference to the ongoing battle with Ram & Laxman) orders for waking up the giant demon. And thus the amusement gets added to the story with donkeys braying loudly, trumpets and conches being played into his ears, deliciously smelling laddus being brought, soldiers trying hard to wake him up but all these efforts only resulted in Kumbhakarna’s tossing, turning and rolling over to the other side causing a ruckus with falling and fleeing donkeys, men and soldiers. By this time, the boy who had also fallen asleep and was dreaming the story was woken up by his Appa in the morning to get ready for school.
Afterwards we discussed the part of Ramayana set around Kumbhakarna’s episode and that he was the brother of Ravana, the king of all demons. Dhruv is fascinated with the character of Ravana ever since a short film on Ramayan was shown to the students in his class on A/V a couple of months back. That day, he asked me where does Ravana live. I told him he used to live in Lanka which is modern-day Sri Lanka. The next day he asked me “Canada main bhi Ravana hota hai kya?” (Does Canada also have Ravana?) Canada is special since we have relatives in Toronto with whom he had chatted on skype once . Next day the question was “Australia main bhi Ravana hota hai kya?” (Does Australia also have Ravana?) Another question was “Did Ravana really have 10 heads?”
The big question came yesterday. In an illustration, the King Ravana is giving orders for waking up Kumbhakarna and he is shown to have 10 heads.
Dhruv pointed and asked “Did Ravana’s all 10 heads speak at the same time when he gave orders?”
Linking this post to #MondayMusings hosted by Corinne Rodrigues and Parul Kashyap Thakur
Ha ha! That’s such an intelligent question. Look at this – how would Ravan know which head to use to ask what question. Good one! 🙂
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I think I am getting dumber day by day. But I am not complaining because even my parents do not have answers. They still have their own questions. My father came up with a similar question as yours 🙂
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I too have fascination for Ravana. But I have to admit that i was dump….. 😛 Let me know when Dhruv get the answer for his INTELLIGENT question …. 😛
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I am dumb too because I don’t have answers to his questions most of the time. I will leave him to find his own answer for this one. After all he is on his own journey.
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That’s a good move, dear …. 🙂 🙂 🙂
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Well that was a smart question! But to give you my explanation of many armed and headed Gods and Goddesses – man was not created in His image, man created God in the way he knew – like a man . But in order to make Him super human gave him more heads and arms than humans had.
So I assume that only one head really spoke- imagine what a headache Ravana would have got of each head pained at the same time or worse differently?
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The insights I got from all the comments here is Ravana did have only one head. So much trouble for the visual representation humans have created for parents to explain.
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What are parents for?
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Of course to get pinned to the walls 😀
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Maybe you should tell Dhruv – “yes, all his heads/mouths spoke at the same time, that’s why nobody could follow what was being said because each mouth said something different!” I know, I know this would lead to more questioning but look at the bright side – at least he will be happy that he has only one mouth/head, this way he can be sure that his questions are all heard properly by his parents 😀
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I am worried about the additional questions which will follow if i touch upon this subject further. i choose to give rest to the topic of 10 heads 🙂
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🙂
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I remember reading somewhere that actually Ravan had just one head like everyone else. Apparently, his mom (oh, you moms!) gave him a particular shiny necklace which gave such a reflection that it appeared as though he had 9 more heads.
Don’t ask me if its true 🙂 I am just the messenger!
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I accept Ravan had only one head but if the story is true, his mother really complicated the whole thing creating trouble for me 🙂
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Aww that is such a cute one 🙂 I know he’s too young to understand but you might try saying that the ten heads were symbolic of his ten gunas/ skills that he was famous for and just representations. Then again, that might take away the charm for him. So choose wisely.
To be fair, when Gy turned 6 we started discussing things like this from the conceptual view point instead of the story view point and she does analyse a lot. Like her mom 😉
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I came to know about his ten heads being representations of his gunas in one of the discourses but it is difficult to explain to a little child. For now he is going by the pictorial depictions.
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Ha ha ha — kids ask the strangest questions. What a ruckus Ravan would make if all his heads did speak. And since they’d all have brains what if he could speak different things to different people at the same time?? I’m thinking of just two heads for my two kids – what bliss :-). I like how your son thinks.
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Now this is positive thinking 🙂 2 heads better than 10, anyday.
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Out of the mouth of a babe…. Reminds me of something my niece’s husband said a while ago, ” Aunty, Sab me Ram hai, Aur Ravan bhi hai”. So, yes Dhruv, Asutralia mein bhi Ravan hoga:) Har jagah, aapko Ram milege, Ravan bhi milege (pardon my atrocious Hindi spellings)
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You are right. Ram and Ravan exist everywhere. It is more about their qualities than their actual selves which are ubiquitous today. This gives me a new perspective, to look at, in explaining things to Dhruv. Thank you Lata for sharing your thought with me 🙂
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I guessed it right then – it had to be Dhruv who’d come with a question to stump Mommy dear and so he did!:D I think I too had a similar question to ask my mom as a kid and all I remember is she had brushed it aside then and it actually remained unanswered! Our moms never had the time and inclination to go all the way as we do with our kids now. Hats off for not brushing this question aside and thinking of putting it up for us all. Here’s my take: I think Ravana used only one head at a time, symbolic of how we select only one thought at any given moment in time even if we have 10 different things going on at the same time, which is what he could well apply in real life! (I sometimes wonder though if Ravana ever had migraine (like me) what would he be going through!!!!:D :D)
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Aha this question came to your mind while you were a child! You must have been highly imaginative 🙂 As we grow up, our imagination gets weak and a long list of To dos occupy to take place in our minds acting as energy suckers.
The migraine joke was a hit with me and my mother 😀
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Thank you Aditi 🙂 I identify with you being the person who does not have answers. I do not even have the questions. I guess it is the peril of growing up.
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???
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Hahaha ;D (raising my hands up) it must be the consequence of Dhruv’s fiddling with the keyboard while I was replying to the comments on this post. He missed his school today, reason in today’s post.
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oh, never mind! Happy to hear from you again. You said he missed school, I didn’t get the time to read any of the posts today, so much of running around all day – hope he is okay. Just getting down to typing my #Monday Musings post now and catch up on the other posts!
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Haha! Dhruv’s questions are very intelligent forcing us to put down the task at hand and to think. When Kanna asks this kind of questions, I ask him “What do you think?” Then we discuss from his point of view. That way, he is learning to exercise freedom of thoughts and I’m rescued from answering the unanswerable intelligent questions. 🙂
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Yes I also try this technique of asking him what does he think about his question. Once he told me there was a boy troubling him in his class and not letting him do his class work. He asked me what to do? I counter questioned him asking what does he think he should do. To this he came to the conclusion that he will change his seat and sit away from that boy. I had to pat his back on this 🙂
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I think 10 heads was a way of describing the extent of his knowledge and strength. Children are so curious. May his curiosity keep growing.
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He is a curious child always accosting me with his whys and why nots. Thank you Suzy for visiting 🙂
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Haha! Too cute! But I’m afraid I don’t have answers to those questions. Ravana has always fascinated and I’ve always thought the 10 heads were a symbol of his skills and shades of personality.
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Thank you Aditi 🙂 I identify with you being the person who does not have answers. I do not even have the questions. I guess it is the peril of growing up.
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Hahaha!! This post is very good didi! Dhruv seriously keeps you at yours wit’s end 🙂
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What I am getting with time is that I will not be having all the answers to my Toddler’s question. It seems normal to me now. But yes, indeed an intelligent one. Thanks for sharing these. It helps me really.
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It is true we cannot answer kids’ each and every questions. For this Ravana’s question, I had to find the answer for him, eventually. The day I told that only one main head did all the talking, Ravana ceased to hold fascination for him 😀 Now he is the ultimate bad man and bad men are not liked.
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