aliens and oxygen

“What is this”, asked Daivik, pointing to a cement mixer. When I told him what it was and explained the purpose of it, he got into a mood for fun and said, “Appa, cement mixer is made of grass”. I gave a surprised exclamation, which seemed to satisfy him and we got into a game of what things are made of.

“You are made of plants too”, he said.  “You know Daivik, plants and me are the same”, I said, partly in jest. Perhaps this put him in some confusion, he became quiet. So I explained, “Actually, both plants and me are made of the same thing called Carbon”.  “How”, he asked and I gave an explanation of the different elements, which seemed to satisfy him. The game continued, now including the names of some of the elements. “Moon is made of carbon”, he said. I said that it was actually it is made of various elements. We then started thinking of what other planets are made of, and I was telling him that only earth has oxygen and other planets do not and that is why you do not see life there.

I thought by now he was in a listening mode. But the mention of lack of life outside the earth triggered something deeply personal. “No”, he protested with a vehemence that was both instantaneous and spirited. “There is life outside earth, there are aliens”. Then, as if to defer any further doubts on this matter, he added, “They are all my friends”. “Okay Daivik, of course there are aliens. But how do they breathe?”. He made an imitation of how they might be breathing. “But what about oxygen?”, I asked. “If there is no oxygen, they cannot breathe. There is no oxygen in other planets”. “Appa, you don’t know. They need oxygen to breathe, but they don’t need lots of it. A little bit is enough”. “So, how do they get that little bit?”. “Oh, they come to earth. You see, after you drop me in school every day, I actually take a rocket, go to other planets, bring the aliens to my school so they can take some oxygen and then they take the rocket back to their planet”. “Who is sitting in the class and listening to the teacher then?”. “Appa, I don’t sit in the class, I tell my teacher I want to play outside and then I actually go to other planets”.

Hmmm…have to check with his teacher.