The little wise one

Born out of an inter-religion inter-state marriage, Pari has been exposed to different cultures, languages and schools of thought. From 1.5yrs to 4.5 yrs of age she was at Nagpur and so has mostly witnessed neo-Buddhist ways of life. Sometimes, when with her Daddy or paternal grandparents, she has been to church, heard of Jesus and God and seen people offer prayers. On one visit by Daddy to Nagpur, when she was not even 3 yrs old, the two were going to sleep in the same room. Being the nocturnal creature, she was up when the lights of the room were switched off. When the light coming in through the window went off too, she asked her Daddy, "Who switched off that light?" Daddy said, "Jessus did."
Pari: You shouldn't say Jesus, Call him Jesus uncle.
Dadddy: Ok. Jesus Uncle did.
Pari: Can he talk to me like Mummy?
Daddy: He will, if you talk to him.
Pari: (after some thought) No Daddy, he can't talk to me like my Mummy does.

Pari's Daddy moved to Nagpur when she was over 3.5 yrs old and stayed there for almost a year. The concept of God was elaborated more to her then. Now 5 yrs old Pari lives with Mummy in Kharagpur while Daddy lives in Kolkata. She has seen Diwali and Christmas been celebrated at her school-cum-creche. There are many many incidents of Pari's wit that were worth documenting in last 6 months, but weren't because now Mummy's life has become too busy with all the time-to-time running around to be done. Pari and Mummy have discussions on all sorts of random topics from Shiva to Doremon, from birth to death, from bhagwaan to bhoot ... One such recent conversation started when Pari read Techkriti written on Mummy's t-shirt.
Pari: Who is Techkriti?
Mummy: It is a festival at IIT Kanpur.
Pari: Is it a he or a she.
Mummy: It is a festival. Neither he nor she. It's celebrated like Diwali, Christmas, Eid etc.
Pari: What is Eid?
Mummy: Like your Daddy, Nanamma, Tatagaru believe in Jesus and God...
Pari: I believe in Jesus and God too.
Mummy: Some people like your Daddy etc. believe that God created the world. They are called Christians and they celebrate Christmas. Some people believe that Allah created the world .They are called Muslims and their festival is Eid. Some people believe that different things in the world are controlled by different gods. A god for rain, a god for wind, a god for trees, Sun is a god, and so on. They are called Hindus and their festivals are Diwali, Holi etc.
Pari: I believe what my Daddy believes.
Mummy: These things are complicated. Your Mummy doesn't believe what you Daddy believes.
Pari: Then who am I?
Mummy: When you grow up then you will understand the different things people around the world  believe and then make a decision for yourself.
Pari: What if I want to be a Christian?
Mummy: Then you must believe in Jesus, go to church every Sunday, pray daily and follow the Bible.
Pari: What is the Bible?
Mummy: It is book which has the account of how God created the world and the story of Jesus' life and instructions on how Christians should lead their lives. Christians believe that the book has eternal truth.
Pari: Whatever is written in the Bible is the truth.
Mummy: How can you be so sure? Muslims believe that the Quran has eternal truth. Hindus say that the Bhagwad Gita is true, Sikhs say that Guru granth Saheb has it.
Pari: Mummy, what is written in the Bible is true. What is written in the Quran is also true. Gita is also true and Guru saheb is also true, They are nice books and all are right. Nobody's book has anything wrong.
Mummy: (overwhelmed by the response) Yes beta. People follow different ways of living. Your Naser mama and Bhaloo mama (Mummy's friends from her lab) are Muslims and they go to Masjid every Friday. Hindus pray in temple and Buddhists go to Buddha-Vihar.
Pari: Yes, my Aaji and Baba go to Vihar.
Mummy: Yes, because they are Budddhists. So is your Mummy. I do Vandana daily ...
Pari: Wait Mummy.... (washes hands, returns to the Gautama Buddha picture and joins hands) Nasmo tassa bhagavato arahato... Mummy, teach me the rest of it. I have forgotten.
Mummy:  It's ok. You don't need to do that now. Pari, I am very proud of you today. You have given solution to the world's biggest problem. People are fighting for whose god is better.
Pari: Mummy, fighting is a bad thing. People should not fight. Every god is good, everybody's god is nice.
Mummy: You deserve a prize for this. Go and take whichever chocolate you like from the fridge.