The Inquisitive Minds.

Today's paper reported that 303 children are missing this year making it a total of 6,000 children altogether. Pretty alarming right?! When things like this happened, the first party to be blamed on is the parent. When I look at this kind of report with that kind of statistics, it immediately send shivers down my spine. Being a parent itself is such a tough job. The toughest job with no pay...Fuhh!

Anyway, that's for any parent to ponder on. But, that's not the topic for today. (Tu cuma intro je ok?!).

Today's topic will be on Children’s Inquisitive Minds.

It all started on one fine Saturday afternoon, when a mutual friend of me and hubby sent
his 5 yo daughter to my house. He said that her daughter was bored at home. Her Ibu had to work in Thailand and she was left with bibik and her sister who hardly can speak. Her Ayah wanted to play futsal (dengan sape lagi kalau bukan dengan my dearest Hubby). So, she wanted to play with Ashraff. Fair enough. In fact, I looked forward to it (which is so unlike me before..like before I got a child of my own).

I know this girl as an intelligent, articulate and flexible (in the sense that she can adjust herself to play with either a typical boy or a ladylike princessy kinda girl) little cherub.

Ashraff actually looked forward to seeing and playing with Kak Dalila (yes, that’s her name). Biasalah Ashraff, dia akan suka main dengan orang tua daripada dia. Kalau sebaya ada susah sikitlah.

They fused immediately. By the time I made sure that the food is ready, Ashraff and Dalila have started running around the house, playing “catch me if you can”. I didn’t quite like the idea of kids running around the house, so I brought some art block and some art materials which consists of crayons, colour pencils and water colour all in a box.

“Ibu Ashraff, Dalila nak buat painting.”

She called me “Ibu Ashraff”? So cute and funny. Hehehe..

“Dalila, please call me Aunty ok? Not Ibu Ashraff.” I replied, oncle my giggle subsided. “Are you sure you want to do painting? Nanti kena pakai air, takut tumpah.”

“Tak. I promised I won’t mess this place. I akan paint dalam ni je” while her finger follows the outline of the art paper.

“I’m sorry. Tu bukan maksud Aunty. Aunty takut Ashraff terlanggar air tu. Nanti tumpah.”

“I promise I’ll jaga the air.”

So she did the painting religiously. And Ashraff did some art work with his usual crayon and colour pencil. He only stopped just to look at what’s Dalila’s doing. He’s mesmerized by the way she did the painting.

“Ni buat apa ni?” Ashraff asked Dalila.

“Ni painting lah” Dalila jawab.

“Dalila tulis apa tu? Orang ke? Mana kaki dia? Hand dia?”

“Kejaplah. Nak buatlah ni. Dia pakai skirt. And this is tree.”

After a while the children got bored with painting and drawing. So I moved on to next activity i.e. watching “Happy Feet” (you know the story of the singing penguin).

This is when the very, very curious mind took place. Sudden rush of questions came out from Dalila’s mouth. Like a chain reaction. Question, follow-up questions, new sets of questions. It started with some basic questions… and later build up to much harder questions.

My brain is working really hard. Spinning macam gasing.

“Apa nama penguin ni?”

“Errr…kejap let me check *read the synopsis on the DVD cover* Oh, his name is Mumble.”

“Mumble? Kenapa dia mumbling ke bila cakap?”

“Tak lah. Ibu ngan Ayah dia nak bagi nama dia Mumble.”

She’s satisfied with that answer and move on to the next set of questions.

“Kenapa Mumble ni takde yellow kat badan dia? Yang lain semua ada?”

Ha’ahlah kan...Kenapa pulak macam tu yek? I hear myself thinking.

“Mumble is err..special. Penguin yang lain semua boleh nyanyi. Tapi Mumble tak boleh nyanyi. He can only dance. “

I know I’m not answering the question directly becoz I really don’t know the answer. But Dalila seemed happy with my reply. That's more important.

Oh, ada lagi new set of questions.

“Kenapa semua tempat ada ice?” (U know like the ones in Artic or Antartica).

“Because it’s so cold, so all the water freezed to become ice.”

“Tapi kenapa ada water pulak kat bawah dia? Bukan ke kalau ice kena dengan water it will melt? Kenapa tak melt pulak?”

Darn! How do I answer this?

Errr…. “Oh, that’s because it’s so cold, so kalau kena dengan water pun it won’t melt. It’s so cold so the ice is very thick and won’t melt. It’s cold in Antartica, Dalila” I replied grinning, like kerang busuk. Seriously I got to brush up my knowledge pertaining to this matter.

“Kenapa cold pulak? Kenapa tak hot?”

What?!!

“Oh, that’s because Allah dah jadikan tempat tu sejuk…”

Hehehe…not a good one but she seemed satisfied.

And there I was, thinking I would be able to concentrate on the movie when suddenly the movie scene showed a walrus from underwater, knocking a big hole in the ice and landed on top of the ice.

“Ni apa ni?” Question came from Ashraff.

“Ni nama dia walrus.”

“Nose dia macam elephant lah.” Dalila concluded.

“Eh, tadi Aunty kata ice tu thick. Kenapa boleh pecah pulak?” asked Dalila.

What?!! Think, Rafiqah. Think.

“That’s because the walrus is so big and strong. It could break the ice.”

Ok, she seemed satisfied with the answer.

Then, the scene showed mountain covered with snow.

“Eh, tu mountain kan?”

“Yes.”

“Kenapa ada mountain pulak? Tadikan cuma ada ice and water?”

“Oh, just now tu laut yang dah freeze jadi ice. Yang ni mountain pulak.”

Ok, not a good one.

“Kenapa mountain ni warna white?”

“That’s because it’s covered with snow”

Simple.

“But why ada warna gold?”

“That’s because the sun shines at the mountain. Those gold colour tu tempat sun shines.”

“Hah? Kenapa ada sun pulak? Tadikan aunty cakap tempat ni sejuk? Kalau ada sun, kenapa ice tu tak melt?”

Goodness me! How do I answer this? Seriously. I am totally blank. But I tried to smile even though I started to feel a bit panicky. This is even harder than sitting for an IQ test!

“Dalila, errr…let me try to find you the answer. Aunty kena baca sikit pasal tempat ni, boleh?”

“Ok.”

By the time the movie ended, I am exhausted from having to build up the muscle in my brain and what not.

And oh, I never did read about Artic or Antartica. Dalila forgotten about it coz the next time I saw her she didn’t ask the question again

But that’s not the point. The point is it's a miracle when you can actually see the world through a child's great sense and wonder. We as adults are too busy catching up with bigger issues like politics and economics (or making end meets) that we tend to take other small things for granted. We don't even pause and think the way a child thinks. We don't even take time to look at our surrounding and ask questions of nature and science. We thought we know coz we "makan garam" a lot earlier than them. But the fact is we don't know. Or we forget something that we have left years ago.

So when we are put in situation like this, we tend to think "Hey, banyak rupanya benda yang saya sendiri pun tak tahu."

And me having to learn a lesson here, have to prepare myself for this. Soon Ashraff will reach this stage where he’ll have such an insatiable appetite to know and explore things that he sees, touches, hears and smells.

Even now he has started asking questions, but very much simpler as compared to Dalila. Mostly just to verify what he knows (and feel proud when he could correct us). And some just genuine questions.

For example…

“What’s that?” while pointing outside the window (his finger touches the window).

“That is car's window”.

“Taklah. Tu cloud”.

Ok, how am I suppose to know that he’s actually pointing at the cloud and not the window itself?
“What colour is this?”

“Blue colour” Tok Abah jawab.

“Tak. Ni green colour. Tok Abah cakap blue.”

“Ala sorrylah Ashraff. Tok Abah ni tak nampak. Ha’ah ni green colour” my colour-blind father replied. Hehehe…

“Dalam ni ada apa, tok mak?” sambil tunjuk tangan dia.

“Dalam ni ada darah, isi, urat…Nampak tak line-line ni. Tu lah urat. Dalam urat ni ada darah. Sebab tu kalau Ashraff jatuh, nanti keluar darah.”

“Mendarah ke?" Ok, Ashraff pelat sikit when it comes to “ber”. All “ber” jadi “men” like mendiri, mentukar, mendarah…

“Ha’ah. Berdarah.”

That’s some of the questions asked by Ashraff. Tak mencabar. At least, not for the time being. But like I say, it started with easy ones and as they grow bigger and the curious nature develops, the easy ones will later build-up to more challenging questions. Haaa…masa tu barulah kita tahu langit tinggi rendah.

Phewhhh!!! So am I prepare to face the challenge? Tungguuu….

Meanwhile, how do I do with answering Dalila's questions? Ok tak?