Amid this corona virus (COVID-19) scares and its fear, my daughter, too young to even pronounce the word Corona virus, who has no clue about what and whys of the lockdown, gave a glimpse of how their tiny but always active brain works in a hilarious way.
We had to take an early morning flight to Vadodara, Gujarat for a cousin’s wedding in second week of March 2020. This was the time when COVID-19 was just crawling in to India and there was an unknown fear in the air. We reached at airport early in the morning, and Megha being typical fearful, rather watchful and precautious mother & wife, made all of us wear masks at the airport. Normally, Vritima hates covering her head or mouth, but this time she noticed many faces with masks all around airport. She also noticed regular security personnel in uniform, and her little brain processed all this visuals in a story – if you don’t wear the masks, the police (security) uncle will catch you. She’s a bit afraid of police in general. So, she wore her over-sized mask without much fuss all the way till boarding gate.
All this while she was almost totally silent which was a bit surprising for us. But we welcomed that small period of silence, normally she’s a chatterbox, constantly talking, asking and wanting our attention. Then, when we entered the transit bus, she got all excited looking at the planes lined up on runways and hangars. Suddenly, she started telling us about the planes, their colors, size etc. in an unusually high pitched and louder than usual tone. This puzzled me as to why she started talking so loudly and suddenly, I realized that – she thinks her mask is blocking her words from reaching us and she must speak loudly so that we can hear her. I immediately burst out laughing, with amusement from fellow passengers.
The moment she took off the mask, she was back to her normal tone. I asked her casually – why were you silent and then talking so loudly? And with her typical innocent face she answered – But Daddy, I’m wearing this mask na, so how can I talk? I must say I was totally bowled over by Vritima’s thought process and how she never fails to amuse me with her intelligence. But not so surprised either, because kids these days, I tell you, have their own unique logic and thoughts.
And folks, yes, please, Stay Home – Stay Safe.
Vritima is so cute. Can’t wait to read more adventures of Vritima.