Guillotine'd

A pic of a Buckingham Palace guard started off a conversation with my 6 year-old on kings and queens. She was surprised that England still has a queen. Not just England, I said, so too do many European countries. Except France, I added. And thus came up the topic of the guillotine. What’s that, she asked. I drew a pic of the guillotine setup. This is how the conversation continued:
She: “Really, so the French king was killed by his own people?”
Me: “Yup.”
She: “But why did they kill their king?”
(I told her the infamous Marie Antoinette quip on eating cake).
She: “Don’t tell me jokes and stories, I am asking what really happened?”
Me: “I’ll find out the kid-version answer and tell you later.”
I’ll-get-back-with-the-answer-later is one of the only topics where my daughter has the patience to wait. In fact, I was very gratified to hear her say one day to my wife, “If you or appa don’t know something, you say you’ll find out and tell it later. Why can’t my m’am do that? Instead, she’ll say wrong, wrong answers!” (I still don’t know on which topic her teacher gave “wrong, wrong answers”. More importantly, how did my daughter know the answer was wrong…)

Next day, I queried “French Revolution for kids” and told her the reasons for the French Revolution:
1)      The king of France gave money to America to fight the British; this was draining the French coffers (So you see, I added, England ruled America and India… and much of the world back then). She rushed to her globe and said “Really? This tiny country ruled such big countries?” Yeah, but that’s a lesson for another day…
2)     The rains had failed, and there was little food for the poor. Or none that they could afford. The royals and the priests, on the other hand, were leading luxurious lives. “Priests? They had so much money?” Ah yes, that too is a long story…
3)     All the land was owned by the royals and the priests. So the poor had to pay rent for everything. And rents were raised arbitrarily.
4)      The French population was hearing of democracy (she understands democracy to mean people select who rules them… for a fixed period of time). “Hmmph”, she snorted, “if a king is a bad ruler, who rules after him? His equally useless copycat son”. We’re glad madam approves of democracy. I loved that phrase: “useless copycat son”…

Fed up with all this, I told her that the people charged the palace. The king promised to be better, and then did nothing. This time, the people threw him into the dungeons. Then he conspired to call upon other kings to put him back on the throne. Now the king had gone too far, I explained saying he had betrayed the country by aligning with the enemy. And so out came the guillotine. And it was off with his head…

Comments

  1. Ramiah KumarFebruary 16, 2018 at 1:02 PM

    As usual, I loved the way Aditi is grappling with the adult world. And the way she freely and charmingly expresses - so cute!

    When I was a kid, I distinctly recall that the adult world lacked much straight-forwardness and it was much beyond my understanding. They seemed to be all the time taking life seriously instead of playing, a thing that comes to the child naturally!

    About the French Revolution, the details were confusing for me, until you (Viswanathan) clarified some points. Can't say I have much worthwhile understanding even now.

    Recently, I was surprised to find a reference to the French Revolution time, in a book by a current French mathematician which is full of very high-flying mathematics. (Can't imagine how the book even got published as if there is something in it for the layperson!) The book mentioned that during the turbulent period of French Revolution and the unsettled time following that, the French people were given to imagining that political people will be remembered for their "worth"; whereas people of science would soon be forgotten. Now, there was a brother of Fourier, a great French mathematician. This brother was into politics of that time. So, people believed that while the mathematician Fourier would be forgotten in no time, political Fourier will be remembered. It so happens that the politically-minded Fourier is completely forgotten today. But the mathematics of Fourier (Fourier transform and all) is taught all over the world, from Japan to America, at some technical level (maths and electronics), with people registering their admiration for Fourier's insight - with me too in that admirers' group!

    Another interesting detail was about the great litterateur Alexander Dumas. He went on following and then changing his political views and allegiance. Imagine, he did so some seven or eight times, as the French turmoil was continuing. I didn't know Dumas had deep-rooted personal convictions/involvement in politics. Again, it so happens people don't seem to bother or care about that side of Dumas - he is till date a honored and liked as an all-time great literary person.

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