Of the Santa story and my digital daughter
SHE WAS INQUISITIVE ABOUT THE WHEREABOUTS OF SANTA TO WHICH MY ANSWER WAS THAT HE LIVED IN THE SKY AND VISITED THE EARTH ONLY ON CHRISTMAS NIGHT. THEN SHE WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SANTA’S WIFE AND CHILDREN
Festivals are occasions when we get a bunch of opportunities to reinvigorate our bond of love and affection with our beloved ones. They not only break the monotony of our routine, but at times leave lifelong lessons. By this, I have no intention of pontificating on the messages of mutual love, brotherhood, respect for other religions and so on. No doubt, these concepts of human harmony constitute the spirit of all the festivals. But this Christmas was unusually special for me, and I learnt a delightful new lesson.
Blessed with a five-year-old daughter, I was overwhelmed with joy when I told her the story of angelic Santa’s midnight arrival. Initially, my daughter did not show much interest in the story that I was concocting to please her, but there was a glimmer in her eyes, the moment I playfully told her that Santa is great friend of all kids. He arrives in the middle of the Christmas night, and delivers gift packs on the bedsides of babies. Now my story had my audience spellbound. The very mention of gift packs had brought about many interesting twists and turns in my previously insipid Santa tale. Now it was no more a monologue. My daughter began to shoot a set of innocent questions in my direction. Much to my surprise, she was inquisitive about the whereabouts of Santa to which my astute answer was that he lived in the sky and visited the earth only on the Christmas night.
Now my daughter wanted to know about Santa’s wife and children. I did not have the luxury of taking undue time to answer her second round of queries. Her watchful eyes could perhaps see through my Santa story. So I told her Santa’s wife was a fairy and their daughter a little angle like her. Truly speaking, now I had almost exhausted my imagination about the Santa family and I couldn’t continue weaving the tale anymore. Before the fertile brain of my daughter could unleash another volley of questions, I swiftly wound up my narrative by assuring her that Santa would drop her a wrapped up gift when she awoke the next morning. Closing her hopeful eyes, my cherubic child instantly fell asleep with the excitement of waking up the next morning to loads of gifts by her bedside.
When she was fast sleep, I arranged a set of toys near her pillow. Next morning our habitual late-riser turned into an early bird. While unwrapping the gift and nudging me, she whispered in my ears, “Barey papa I know you are my Santa and you have placed all these gifts. Your story about Santa was unreal but you as my Santa are real.”
It was a lesson well learnt this Christmas. You can no longer fool your innocently clever kids born in this digital age.