abu & rabad

Earlier Meetu wrote about how Abu wanted to give minus points to the terrorists.

We’ve had a few sporadic conversations about the terrorists in the following few days.

Often, I read newspapers at the breakfast table. And sometimes Abu and Rabad want to know what I am reading, and I try to tell them the “news of the day” in terms that they can understand. (Just want to clarify, this is on “normal” days too, not just those marred by terrorist activities.)

So on Friday, Abu asked me, “What is in the news, Dad?”

“136 people have been killed by the terrorists in Mumbai,” I told him.

“Oh. That’s too many,” he said, and then after a slight pause continued, “Thank God, they didn’t kill Rabad.” He was very casual, and natural. Not at all worried, or afraid, or “affected” in any other way, as far as I can tell. What I found most interesting is that it wasn’t “us” or “me”. It was “Rabad”.

* * *

On Sunday, we were just driving somewhere when we passed a “raddi paper” (old newspaper recycling) shop. They had huge stacks upon stacks of old newspaper ready to be taken away. It looked interesting and impressive, the kind of thing that Abu would find cool. So I told him, “See Abu, how many newspapers.”

“Wow! Cool!” he said, and then added, “All of them are about terrorists?”

“What? Why? Why would you say that, Abu?” I asked.

“I’ve seen the newspapers at home Dad. They are all about terrorists all the time.”

* * *

Later, we were talking about the news again, and I told him, “The terrorists have been killed. The situation is now normal. The problem is over.”

“Over?” he asked, “Have the dead people been reborn?”

I was flabbergasted. I swear I am not putting words in his mouth, nor did I prompt him in any way.

But he is right. The dead people are not going to be reborn. It is not over.

* * *

I just want to point out that Abu is not obsessing about the terrorists. In the last few days, we have talked about Harry Potter, and birthday parties, and restaurants, and teachers, and snakes-and-ladders, and tennis, and badminton, and cricket and all the other things that kids normally think about. Right now he is very excited about having reached level 3 of BlockABilla (don’t ask! some computer game.) It’s just that I have picked out the few conversations about terrorists and posted them here. I guess maybe I am obsessing about the terrorists.

The aftermath of the Mumbai terror is a very confusing time. One is sad, because the “dead people will not be reborn”, and at the same time, one is thankful because “it wasn’t Rabad”.