Jhooth bole kauwaa kaate
May 3, 2007
At Aru’s daycare, everyday they have a activity time called ‘Enrichment’. This is different from their normal playtime where they are left on their own. The older kids do things like- drawing, painting, making greeting cards, collage, craft etc. And the younger ones, that is, one to two-and-half year olds do things like drawing, colouring, spray painiting with a toothbrush, canvas painting with shaving brush, block painting with cut vegetables, story telling, dancing, singing etc. Sometimes they do really interesting things like- making nimbu-paani for a drink, making sandwiches for snack-time, arranging books on shelves, watering the plants, mopping their small dining tables etc.
Everyday when I go to pick Aru up, I’m given a report of what they did and how Aru liked/disliked it and if there is any artifacts, it is handed over to me. Initially they would invariably tell me- aaj Aru ne caterpillar banaya, aaj Aru ne sand painting kiya, aaj Aru ne mountain banaya etc. Once while standing with them, I pointed to the drawing and asked Aru- ‘Aru ye train kisne banayi?’ Aru quitely pointed at Hema aunty and said- Aunty ne banayi. Everybody burst out laughing. From that day onwards Hema aunty switched over to saying- aaj humne leaf painting kiya, aaj humne pasting kiya, aaj humne bhel banayi!