Thursday, February 02, 2017

A strange fairy tale

In what is probably the most exciting development in the life of an almost 6-year-old, one of Xena's teeth is shaking.

And so came up the topic of the tooth fairy again. She seems very sceptical about Santa now ("Mama, are you sure it was Santa who gave this to me, and not you? How does Santa know I like dinosaurs?"), but she still believes in the tooth fairy, from what she has read in books and heard from her 'seniors' who have already had 'visits'.

"Will the tooth fairy come when this falls?" She said, tugging at her tooth.

"Yes, she might. If you're good."

"XYZ in my class said that the tooth fairy will take the tooth and leave me a gift."

"Well, she will give you whatever she wants to give."

(Seriously? A gift for each fallen tooth? This 'tooth fairy' sure found it excessive.)

"Like what?"

"Erm, she might leave you a dollar coin for each tooth."

(I have no idea what the current 'going rate' is, but my plan is to leave a dollar for each tooth, so Xena can learn a thing or two about patience and savings.)

"What will I do with the coins?"

"You will collect them all and at the end you will have twenty dollars! You can use it to buy something you want."

She agreed readily. We have 'Konmari'ed' her enough to make her uninterested in too many material items. In fact, she's constantly worried that her room will get too messy if there are too many things, and keeps donating her toys away when they start to pile up too much.

"Mama... can the tooth fairy not take my teeth? I want to keep them. It's ok if she doesn't give me the coins."

"Err... possible. Maybe you can write her a note requesting her not to take your teeth? She might still leave you the coin though."

"She will read my note?"

"Yeah, just keep it right next to the tooth under your pillow."

"But how will she reply? I will be sleeping."

"She will write you a reply on your note itself."

"What will she write?"

["Noted with thanks" was what came to my mind.]

"She will tell you if she's ok with your request."

"But does she have a pen?"

"Uhhh..."

"Fairies have wands. Can she write with her wand?"

"I don't know. Can she?"

"Maybe not..."

"Well, she can borrow a pen from your desk." I suggested.

"That's a great idea, Mama!"

"Okay, all set then."

"But Mama..." she started, her brow furrowed, and I knew immediately that she was about to express her most important concern about this whole tooth fairy business.

"Will she put the pen back in its place after using it?"



6 comments:

Ranjani said...

Yay!! You are back!!

And do you sometimes feel you have disciplined Sayesha a li'l too much???


Ranjani

Arun said...

LOL! For that, the tooth fairy has to be doubly generous :)

Sayesha said...

Ranjani,
Thanks for the warm welcome. :D

//And do you sometimes feel you have disciplined Sayesha a li'l too much???

Sayesha, yes. Xena? Not so much. Yet. :P

Arun,
LOL!

TMaYaD said...

Ye khushiyon ka asu Hein. (Don't hate me. All the Hindi I know is from the very few Bollywood movies I watched.)

Arun said...

The six-year-old Santa skeptic will eventually enjoy this article:
http://asijaipurcircle.nic.in/conservation%20in%20JOgi%20Jogna%20temple,%20dholpur.html

Starts thusly:

"It’s an age-old question—how does Father Christmas manage to deliver presents to children across the world in just one night, fit down the chimney, never seem to age and arrive without being seen or heard? As a little girl, I can recall puzzling over these mysteries, so much so that one Christmas Eve I left a card for Santa, questioning why he never got any older. Though rather overwhelmed when I received a reply from the great man himself, my rational mind was not satisfied with the answer I received, scrawled in shaky hand-writing: “It’s magic.”

This year, I sat down to work through a scientific explanation."

Arun said...

Here's an even better one, and the one I was looking for in the first place:
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/letter-supersonic-santa-1290457.html