My husband’s parents are in town and yesterday while driving them around, a fire truck rushed past us with sirens wailing and as always all vehicles pulled up on both sides of the road to leave room for the fire vehicle.
Father-in-law commented as a matter-of-factedly about how the corrupt and self-important firemen and cops in India misuse their emergency sirens to make way for them in the packed traffic for their personal errands or for going for lunch and also,just to just zip past the traffic, people were getting such sirens in their personal vehicles.
My son did not comment that time and asked no questions(which was strange!!), but he had absorbed and processed the information overnight and this morning, he presented his hence-concluded hypothesis-
“Mummy, you know in India when the firemen sound the siren, means they are going to eat and when they don’t means there is a fire”.
I wonder next time when they talk about fire safety at school,he will pour out his new knowledge about fire rules in India and put my country to disgrace.
“Really?That’s weird!!” , that’s what I imagine, his teacher and classmates would say.
Reminds me of my cousin, she was born and brought up in US only and used 2 think that Indians eat in common plates with rats running around on table as shown in some movie, i guess Indiana Jones.
Maybe u may want to bring him time on and off to India before there is a big disconnect.
“Mummy, you know in India when the firemen sound the siren, means they are going to eat and when they don’t means there is a fire”.
That shows a lot of processing inside ..Guess the budding mind has a great imagination power..I always luv to read his one-liners!
Hey Jas, ur comment is too cool…
This post has given an idea abt the thought process of Indian kids, brought up outside !
Jas,we take him to India every year and he loves everything there,especially the cycle-rickshaw,autorickshaw and scooter rides.
Rats running around the table, thats funny,wonder which movie shows that, I should avoid that!!
Thanks Pooja,for reading and for your wonderful comments!!
Oh thats nice! Must admire your parenting, this multi cultural thing will add to him a lot!
kudos to his parents!
One thing Sara, they use the sirens for is – they have hurry back from lunch!!!
Frankly, been in India my whole life, I can say I have never seen this happen. As a matter of fact, you never know if there a fire or not. So, this is just a hypothesis.
Sara, yesterday a colleague’s house had a fire and I understand it was was a Fire Service team that put it out. Nope, money was neither demanded nor given. Hope this helps in correcting your son’s ( and if possible, your FIL’s ) perceptions.
Thats remarkable Rajesh,good to know and let others know!!
I am sure Daal mein kuchh kaala hai lekin poori daal kaali nahin hai.
It is indeed nice to know that one’s child is not just hearing, but listning, and can conjure up complex logical patterns from what s/he has absorbed. Yet arriving at blanket conclusions, from scraps of data,could turn into dangerous permanent prejudices.
How do you know the occupants of the fire truck that you and your FIL heard were not headed for lunch?
It is easy to be cynical. You should hear the Indians who return from abroad claim everything in India is rubbish.
They claimed with admiration how stores in US take back stuff once sold without a question. In the same breath they would add that we picked up things we had forgotten to carry and returned before we were to fly back.
They had to be reminded it is because of this mentality that stores in India can not dream of doing this.
Your FIL and all of us have made India what it is – good or bad.
Agree totally…I just described an incident here..never meant to pass any kind of judgement on India or Indians.And,we all share the share the blame if there’s any!!
long time, no post! Have u gone on another Cruise trip? 🙂
Very well replied by Deepak!
Quite a mature thought!
We need to remember this always!
Very well replied by Deepak!
Quite a mature thought!
We need to remember this always!