Don’t tell lies

The Background

At home Daivik was told that if he tells lies, a crow will bite him. In the kindergarten, for the same offence, they told him that his nose will grow long.

Vignette 1

A small family run circus company camped near our home. They advertised heavily around the neighborhood, with pictures of tigers, elephants and giraffes. Of course when we visited them, they had two horses, two dogs and a goat. Daivik, who was eager to see the tiger and elephant, was not impressed.  When the circus did not close down at the appointed day and instead extended their stay, he started scanning the sky and quipped, “I think lot of crows will come now”. He further clarified: They told many lies, so their nose will grow so long (shows how long). So many crows will come now to sit on their long nose and bite them.

Vignette 2

We were crossing a green field when Daivik spotted two crows sitting on the grass. He went near them. The stubborn city crows did not seem to consider the grinning three foot object approaching them as a threat. Daivik told them, in Hindi, “I’m not from India”. The crows didn’t care. He told his mother, “look, I told them I’m not from India, and they did not bite me”. His mother said, “But these are German crows”.

He bent down deliberately and told the crows in slow, measured and very clear German “There is nobody in Germany. Everybody has gone to India”.