altruism

I had taken a bar of chocolate as an evening snack for Daivik when I went to pick him up from the kindergarten. He opened it right away and it was about to disappear down his throat when Julia came running by. Daivik rescued the chocolate from its near death and wanted to offer half to her. But how do you offer half a bar of chocolate without breaking it ? He ended up placing the chocolate on air, close to her mouth. His intention was perhaps that she takes a (hopefully small) bite and he can carry on with the rest. Julia had another interpretation. What if Daivik was offering the whole chocolate ?  She felt an immediate joy and grabbed the bar with both the hands. Daivik did not let it go. So the bar was choco-witched between the four arms even as Daivik was trying to convey to her that she was supposed to just take a bite and Julia was trying to convince him that he was not supposed to take back what he had offered.  The wrestling continued for a while and Julia finally managed to grab the chocolate and make a dash. They were in the first floor of the kindergarten which has an open rectangular space in the middle overlooking the atrium below and a long corridor running around. They started running  along the corridor chasing each other with a raised bar of chocolate changing hands frequently, accompanied by raised voices and tears. Antagonism, apparently, is just a step behind altruism ! The teacher intervened and, having figured out what happened, gave the bar to Daivik and took Julia gently away.

Daivik, still teary eyed, came to me and demanded to know "Why did you not bring two chocolates ? See, Julia is crying".