The Globe and the Onion

In recent times, my 6 year-old daughter has shown signs of being aware of the existence of other countries and the distances between them. In astronomy, the unit of distance is light years; for her, the unit of distance between countries is the number of connecting flights! One time, I showed her a video of the Aurora Borealis (aka Northern Lights) and told her that unfortunately it can only be seen from countries far north. Later, when she overheard us talking about (possibly) going to Maldives some time, her ears perked up. “That’s a different country from India, right? So can we see the Aurora Borealis from there?”, she asked.

I realized it was time to get her a globe so she’d be able to see where countries are located. I am already finding the kinds of things she notices and asks thanks to the globe amusing and interesting. Wow! There are so many countries? So China is bigger than India? Which is the biggest country? Oh, so America is really on the other side of the world? (Implied: I didn’t believe it when you told me so!)

Then she got to asking about Pakistan, the one country she hates (her school celebrates Kargil Diwas and has talked about it during assembly). I showed her where Pakistan was located. Then she asked where the fighting in the Ghazi movie took place. I pointed to the Bay of Bengal. “Why there?”, she asked, “Why not somewhere here?”, pointing to the Arabian Sea. I gave her the 10,000 feet summary: Pakistan had two parts, East and West; the genocide in East Pakistan (Bangladesh), the refugee influx into India, and the war that followed. “So they killed their own people?”, she exclaimed with disgust. I could see her opinion of Pakistan had turned even more negative.

Then she asked how parts of a country can be separated a la East and West Pakistan? What’s there, I countered, even your favorite America has parts so far from the mainland, pointing at Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico on the globe. Her curiosity was piqued. It took me a while to realize that she was checking if any part of America could be reached from India without changing flights (her unit of inter-country distance)! I realized she now had some idea of how far a flight could (usually) go because she had that disappointed look that said no part of America was reach’able via a single flight from India. I guess her world view is going to be upended when she learns about those non-stop flights…

But I couldn’t resist the temptation to blow her mind: so I told her that India and the reviled Pakistan used to be a single country. She was horrified. Why did we split into separate countries, she asked. I had started with Geography 101 and now have to do History 101 next. I can only hope that as one question leads to another, and the answers start straddling different branches of study, my daughter will maintain Richard Feynman’s attitude towards knowledge:
“If it turns out it's like an onion with millions of layers and we're just sick and tired of looking at the layers, then that's the way it is.”

Comments

  1. Ramiah KumarJanuary 8, 2018 at 3:13 PM

    Very good to read these parental briefings describing participation and coping with child's fabulous learning process. Our little one seems to be an expert at keeping her dad busy finding answers to her questions.

    I can relate to it well all because the simple but recurring, "Why?" from the child induced out of curiosity, would often require Einsteins or Darwins or Lenardo da Vinci and such others to provide appropriate answers! I had put up my hand more often than answering correctly when our children were growing up. :-) Most fathers can at best resort to the way Calvin's dad would respond, so that even if the child gets no answer, other adult listeners can have hearty laughs! :-)


    Now Feynman's hint that knowlwedge/truth of Nature could imply 'millions of layers and we're just sick and tired of looking at the layers...' came in handy for me when I read, "I realized she now had some idea of how far a flight could (usually) go because she had that disappointed look that said no part of America was reach’able via a single flight from India". I recalled that when we made our trip to USA to help out at the time of our second son's baby's arrival, we took the AA flight from Delhi bound for Chicago, USA. From there another flight was to take us to Los Angeles. I had expected the flight to stop somewhere for re-fueling, since I had believed that non-stop direct flight from India to USA was possible. Surprise of surprises, the aircraft flew over Pakistan, changed direction northwards, passed over Russia flying close to Moscow too, after passing through the previous USSR domain countries probably, and then was directly above the North Pole. After that it was heading southwards arriving at Chicago comfortably, after making me get a glimpse of one of the four famous lakes there (it is all actually sea, but since is has fresh water, they call it lake) in that region. Non-stop direct flight, was again ditto experience for our return too, in the same route.

    Don't know if this information would make Aditi happy or unhappy or confused!

    ReplyDelete

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