Gods must be crazy

Daivik and me were looking at flashcards of wild animals from the Savannah. We went through the habits and habitats of Zebras, Rhinos, Giraffes, Lions ("Daivik, where does the Giraffe live", "At the Zoo"!). Daivik knew most of the animals, but Hyena was new for him. "What does Hyena do", he asked. The flashcard said it was friends with the Lion. When I told this, he had more questions. "Does it eat humans then?", he asked. I remembered a scene involving a little boy and hyena from the "Gods must be crazy, part II", the scene where the little boy increases his height by holding a piece of wood above his head. "If you are taller than the Hyena, it will not eat you", I said. Right away Daivik stood erect, straightened his spine further, and asked, "Am I taller than Hyena".

It occurred to me that it might be a good moment to actually watch the said movie. He might be interested in the little boy and the hyena. I could, of course, watch it again. I asked if he would like to watch the movie 'Gods must be crazy'. He liked the ring of the words in the title. "Gods. Must. Be. Crazy", he repeated slowly but right away realized the apparent contradiction the title held with the conception he had of "God".  "But appa", he said, "Gods are not crazy".

Meanwhile, I was scouting the Youtube for videos of the movie. But Google, in its infinite wisdom, was ignoring my requests for 'Gods must be crazy,' instead showing unsolicited suggestions for videos that we might be interested in. While I managed to find the trailer of the movie, Daivik caught a glimpse of Mr. Beans in one of those suggestions. We watched the movie trailer but Daivik's mind was on Mr. Beans. The moment the trailer was over Daivik insisted on Mr. Beans and we ended up watching his antics in the swimming pool.

But the Gods had not disappeared. After the Mr. Beans video, Daivik repeated his earlier assertion, "Appa", he said, "Gods are not crazy".  But it is not enough to just negate something. You need to provide an alternative too. "Appa", he said again, "Gods are not crazy. Mr. Beans is crazy". 

bribe

The teacher was first showing them how to fall. Bend the knees, fall forward and keep the arms on the side. Then he was making them fall down deliberately. Finally he let them to practice the skating. They kept falling down anyway, sometimes correctly, sometimes not. Either way, it was not a pleasant experience.
There were tears and franatic cries, "Mama!". Daivik kept falling down too and not completely comfortable with the situation.

After the class was over, he saw me and came running, with the skates on, and without falling down. "Appa, I kept falling down", he said, teary eyed.  "The teacher asked us to fall down all the time" he said and declared "I don't like the teacher, I don't want to skate". "But you did not fall down now", I said, to encourage him. This only made it worse. "I don't like the teacher, I don't want to skate", he cried again. The teacher was approaching us with a big smile. Daivik was facing me and did not see him coming. He started repeating his mantra "I was falling so many times, I don't like the teacher, I don't want to skate". The teacher, unaware of his current status with Daivik, patted him on the back, said "Daivik, you did very well", gave him some chocolates and walked away. It took about 3 seconds to happen. Daivik could not believe his eyes.  A heavily rationed item lands on its own accord, right into his palm. He is thrilled. Somehow, miraculously, the tears metamorph into a broad smile. "Appa", he declares, "I love my teacher, I love skating".