The square is a diamond.

It must be countless.... the number of times I have heard kids blurting out gems like these.

This one happened when my little one saw one of her scrabble game pieces simply lying on the table. She was looking at it from an angle and out came an excited "Look mummy.....the square is a diamond!" At that moment I just calmed her down with a "Yes, it is sweetie", but then I wondered where the hell had I lost this uninhibited, no-set-boundaries and no-defined-rules imaginative way of thinking. Why can't we look at our squares as diamonds?

The other day, she was trying to draw a TV on her drawing board - in circular shape of course, because she doesn't like straight lines. Anything is possible.

Logical thinking doesn't work. Lateral does. And three feet tall people are full of 'lateral'.

I recall reading an address by a renowned inventor. He was telling the children 'Don't listen to your parents and don't listen to your teachers.' His logic was - what was good at the time your parents were children isn't good enough now. Probably true.

When we were kids, I recall playing a game of words. Somebody says a word and you must immediately speak another word. The rule is, the second word must be absolutely unconnected to the first. Maybe this one should be a game for grown-ups.

Rain Rain go to Spain?

"Rain Rain go away, come again another day, little Johnny wants to play" - how many of us recited this poem at school? And how many of us recited this poem in India(!) And after reciting that poem in K.G. we grew up and learnt in 'social studies'  that India is primarily an agricultural economy. And that the farmers largely depend on rain.

This poem was probably brought into India by the Brits. At some places they have actually gone a step ahead and added another line 'Rain rain go to Spain, do not show your face again'. Notwithstanding the fact that many of them themselves actually go away to Spain to satisfy the craving for sun.

Human nature is self contradictory. We long for something "different" and when we do have it for some time, we long to go back to familiar circumstances. We had a first hand experience of this in Ireland last week. It was a full week of Sun. Seven consecutive sunny days are as rare in Ireland as a summer below 30 degrees in India - a practical impossibility. We were delirious with joy until about the fifth day. On the sixth day, fear started creeping up - 'How long is the sunshine going to last - lets make the most of it while its here.' And finally when it rained yesterday, many of us were 'Ah, thank God, it's the same old Ireland' - though I am sure there will be very few who will confess to this. It's unfashionable to love the weather in Ireland.

Our car being what it is, was resting in a garage yesterday (timing!) and I had forgotten my umbrella at home (timing again!). And yet, my Indian soul, one which had, in past, enjoyed rainy days on my apartment ('flat' for US and India) terrace, thoroughly enjoyed walking in the rain back from my daughters' creche draped in a plastic 'poncho' (google image if you don't know what it means). I must have looked silly, since the last baby in the baby room had his eyes wide open with amazement when he looked at me. But it didn't matter - the familiar rain was back and for once, I was loving it. And sitting within her rain covered buggy, so was my daughter.

It doesn't matter what the weather outside is, really. It is the weather inside that counts.