The Primary School is taking them to the Asian museum today, as part of the learning journey. It coincides with their at-school Math Olympiad class. Kutta has decided not to go to the learning journey. On the way to school this morning, he began, "YS, HY and I are not going. We are the Math nerds". I could sense the joy of doing something unconventional. I questioned, "Will your school be ok with this?". He replied positive. Then I remarked, "The natural History Museum is the best". He agreed, and added, "yes, it houses so much of bird varieties. Including an archaeopteryx". I was just hearing, listening some parts. He continued, "Can you imagine Amma, a palm sized archaeopteryx. Which is the origin of all birds in the universe today. All birds - the finger sized humming bird and the human size ostrich inclusive. Do you know, ostriches could once fly. Then they lost their ability to fly. They evolved from flying to walking. Imagine a huge ostrich flying and standing next to us. How would that be?"
Prior to this conversation, we had talked about plants. He spotted a papaya plant on the pavement, "on your way back, can you pick that and plant it in our garden?". I fake a fear, "Oh! The government will be after me. Remember we are not supposed to uproot pubic plants". He remarked sarcastically, "This is not from the government. It seems to have grown randomly." There's a home grown papaya plant that seldom flowers. He should have remembered it. He asked, "why isn't the papaya plant at home not fruiting? Remember the one time it flowered?". I remember that and respond, "Papaya doesn't have stamen and anther in the same flower. It needs to be pollinated. Do you remember V uncle. You can call him V. He said that the seeds from store bought papaya are mostly genetically modified to host only anthers.". He added, "Or stamen. Let's sow all the seeds from a fruit. At least one of them should have a stamen, isn't it?". I'm laughing within. I said, "I doubt. They may mostly have anthers only. If there are enough stamens, it will challenge their business. So,...". And he replied, "how many papayas can a plant fruit after all? Why do they do this? Do you know, the green beans are also like that. I had initially planted 7 beans. Only 2 grew into healthy plants that flowered and fruited. The rest were all just plants. Then I picked the seeds from these plants and sowed them, so that it continues to flower and fruit. That's why the plant we have now is flowering". I remarked, "You should document all these ma. How much have you observed." This conversation was distracted by a garden lizard on top of a tree shrub. A few minutes later was the conversation on museums.
The whole conversation happened on the forward trip to school by walk. Total of 7-10min. And I cherish these moments. Thank you God!
