Condensation

TRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIINNNNNNGGGGGG!!!!!!!!! (a very long one)

No, it was not a Telephone. Those days telephones were rare, even those round dial ones. That was the round alarm clock ringing on a Sunday, at 7 am. As usual, the little boy was pulled out of the bed and refreshed up within 7:30 am ending with a glass of milk, which he hated the most.

The sole reason behind such a monstrous act of waking up a little one on a Sunday early morning was: Studies!!! Sunday is a day for relaxation and enjoyment for all around the world and the father in our story here, took the bright oppurtunity to turn it into a darker one: Make the little one study!!!

The lessons started with Science and the subject was "Condensation". The kiddo sat beside his father and the page turned. It was a picture of a glass of ice: one normal, and the other one sweating for no reason. A glass of ice sweating??? Questions puzzled the little ones mind. "Ice is cold!!! Its meant to keep things cold!!! I drink cold water and get scolded because its cold!!! Sweat???" Kiddo's mind kept thinking.

"So, lets see what we have today.", the father said.

"Condensation (a small pause). So, lets see what condensation is.", the father continued.

As the father kept on reading, which was an usual Sunday morning blabber to the little fellow, his small mind became busy checking out objects of self-interests.

The 12 inch wooden ruler did not arrive yet, which was indeed soothing. The new Nataraj rubber should be pinned to the pencil and stabbed until its broken. The small red ant is enjoying a relaxed Sunday morning stroll, in his own house, just beside him. The kiddo smashed the living being into a non-living thing!!!

His knick-knacks continued until: "Babu!!! E dike mon dao!!!", (Kiddo, pay attention) the father's caring hand soothingly turned his small neck towards the pages.

Kiddo turned his neck to the book and his eyeballs to the non-living thing, doubting whether its still alive. May be he would have taken a second chance, had the already dead thing showed any signs of life.

A few minutes passed on and unable to play around with something, kiddo said, "baba... pechaap peyeche..."(Dad, I wanna pee.) Saying so, he attended the made-up neccessity, played with the flowing tap water, danced for a few seconds in the backyard and ran to the kitchen where his mother was.

The mother cuddled him, kissed him and asked, "baba ki poraacche ajke..."(What is father teaching you today?) Kiddo loved to get pampered and mother gave him just that. It was a double shot for him, getting pampered and a break from studies.

Within a few minutes, the father called, "koi geli... aai re...." and the mother patted the little one to go back to where he belonged that morning.

He sat and the lessons continued, to which he paid no attention. Yet again, he became busy finding something to play with. While the father continued reading aloud in the background, he took his pencil and started painting the checkboxes in his maths copy undercover. 

Within a few minutes, seeing the inattentive little fellow scribble nonsense, the father interrupted: "Bujhli kichu... naa... ki khele jacchis tokhon theke"(Understood, or are you still upto something). The little raised but caring voice stopped his maths-checkbox-painting game.

A fluctuation in the bass and treble of his father was well known to the boy. He knew very well, that after a maximum of 2 or 3 times, the missing wooden ruler would be in its place. Thus, he should try being a better actor, and not get caught the next time he fiddles with something.

All of a sudden, his father got up from his place!!! The little one's heart started beating faster. "What!!! Why!!! Now!!! I just played once or twice!!! Is that the wooden ruler that's going to take its place or is it something bigger!!! May be, father himself had gone to the washroom this time." Praying for the last thought to happen, hundreds of other thoughts kept running through our little fellow's frightened mind. He only knew that if things got wrong enough, he had to make the distress call (911) "Maaaaaa............." (Mom, please help) and the world's best woman would save him from the calamity.

To his amazement, the father was bringing a couple of empty glasses and an ice tray. Now, that's not an usual Sunday morning lesson!!! The little one was clueless about what was going to happen next.

The father kept the glasses on the table, started pouring water into one, filled the other with ice cubes and gave an eyebrow-raised-smile to our little fellow. Now, since this was something strange, never happened before sort of stuff, our little fellow became too curious about the whole setup. From that very moment pencils, rubbers, scribbling and small red ants became worthless old study pals to him. He was extremely inquisitive about what was happening in front of him and was eagerly waiting for his father to tell him the same. Perhaps, at that moment, even a call from 911 itself i.e. his mom would not have moved him from the table.

"Now, watch both the glasses", said his father and the next few minutes our kiddo kept staring at the glasses without blinking, waiting for some magic to happen.

As he watched water droplets forming on the glass with ice cubes, he wished to know more about how it was happening.

Later, his father explained to him how and why that happened, to which he listened very carefully. He carefully listened to every word that his father said.

As the explanation extinguised our little fellow's curiousity, the father asked,"Do you know what this is called?"

"What?", curious kiddo asked.

Whatever the father showed him that day, the little boy got everything etched to his mind forever. He would never forget the lesson which his loving and caring father taught him. And thus, the Sunday turned funday morning ended with his father giving him the answer, "Condensation".