Imagine

My kid daughter is expectantly waiting for Christmas. After the Durga Puja and Diwali celebrations have been over in October and the memory of the festivities at the Puja pandal and the firecrackers have taken a backseat in her memory, the next big thing for her is to await the arrival of Santa Claus with bated breath. At her age she is not yet fully conversant with the concept of time more than a few days away and although the names of the months are well known to rote, the time interval of two months it is not yet comprehensible for her.

She has been questioning us constantly on such queries that plague her young mind. As is normal for kids of her age, she is unable to play the waiting game of another couple of month or so before the day comes when the grand old man in red will bring cheer and gifts for her. It is with this expectant tone that she walked up to me one day and asked me why Santa Claus cannot come now and must wait for so long. I explained to her in all its profundity that all things have a time in life. However the logic was lost on her.

Her next question stumped me “ Does Santa Claus live in the same snow covered mountain where Maa Durga stays with her lion ?” she asked, eyes big with curiosity. I immediately assured her that yes indeed it was the same mountain which seemed to satisfy her curiosity for next few minutes. Then she came up with the next one “Then Santa Claus and the lion must be good friends !”

With a twinkle in my eye I told her that they indeed were- they were the best of chums I assured her.

I was thinking about this rather amusing episode the other day and wondered that yes all kids the entire world over must be thinking in the same simplicity and living in their imaginative worlds like her and the life revolves around teddy bears and lions and Santa Claus etc. Yet every other day at some part of the world we have ethnic clashes, discrimination on divisive grounds over caste creed color or fights over religious beliefs. I wonder when and how does this wide eyed wonder and love-all attitude of a child yield to such a bitterness between human beings that they fight with severity worse than wild boars ?

I remember the irreplaceable song of Lennon “Imagine there’s no countries it isn’t hard to do, nothing to kill or die for and no religion too…You may say I am a dreamer but I am not the only one , I hope someday you will join us and the world will live as one…”