"A labyrinth of Unpolished Scribbles"

  Last night, while putting Rael to bed, we were having our usual random conversations. She asked all of a sudden, "Amma, why are some kids eating candies?" I told her, "Sometimes children cry or throw tantrums for them. Sometimes adults give in. And sometimes people don't really know how unhealthy they can be." She looked at me and asked, "Why don't I have candies?" Instead of answering, I asked her, "Do you think candies are good for you?" She immediately said, "No, they're not." I asked, "Why?" "They cause stomach pain." I smiled and told her, "Yes. They're full of sugar and colours. They don't do our bodies any good." Then she asked something I wasn't expecting. "Amma, if candies are not good for kids, then why do shops keep them? If they don't keep them there, no kids will ask for them, right?" I paused. Honestly, it made sense. I told her, "Y...

  Which School Does She Go To? If I had a rupee for every time someone asked me this question, I'd probably have enough to pay for a few years of school already. My daughter Rael is three years old. She doesn't go to preschool, and we are planning to send her to formal school only after she turns four. For some reason, this seems to be a very big deal to many people. Rael has always been a talkative and social child. Even when she was around one and a half years old, she would happily talk to people wherever we went. Shopkeepers, neighbours, strangers in queues, she would greet them, smile, and start a conversation. People would often ask me, "How old is she?" When I told them her age, they would usually respond with surprise. "Really? She talks so well for her age." "She's very smart." Then, almost without fail, came the next question. "Which preschool does she go to?" When I replied that she wasn't going to school, I would get p...