The Sweetest Of All

"Amma Amma! Odopo!", said Nandini, bringing a book she was gifted by a relative the previous day. The new book was, "Grandpa's stories", Volume 1 by Navneet Publications.
I gave her some other books asking her to see the pictures so that I could read the new book myself first. Every minute she would close a book and impatiently tell me, "Ee book soothu aanu!" . I kept passing her different books till I finished reading this one. The book had stories of wit and humour and my 3 year old was too young to understand most.Nevertheless, had to translate the stories to her since she would not agree otherwise. 

It was a struggle to make her understand meaning of words like, "Earth", "Stingy", "fools" etc. Either the stories would be modified or some parts would be  skipped for simplicity sake. Worst were the humorous Nasruddin Mulla stories. She would stare blankly at the end of it and not get the joke. After every story, I would say that it's enough but she would insist and we continued our sense and non-sense time.

Then came the 5th story, "The Sweetest of All". The story goes like this in brief :
A scholar from neighboring country came to king Bhoja's court. He asked a question which no one had so far answered to the scholar's satisfaction. The question being, "What is the sweetest thing on earth?"
All the pundits in court, thought it was a simple question, and gave different answers. Love, Selfishness, Good sleep, Respect, Success, being some of the answers. None satisfied the scholar. Then Kalidasa stepped in and gave an answer which  made the scholar happy.
Below is the reply as given in the book:
"Your majesty! Need is the sweetest of all. Nothing seems sweet unless and until one needs it. If you are not hungry, you do not need food, hence it does not taste sweet. If you don't need someone to be near you, his love will no longer seem sweet to you. Similarly if you do not need to be selfish, selfishness will not be sweet and when you wake up after a peaceful sleep, even sleep will not be sweet to you. Those who see no difference between respect and insult, will not appreciate respect. The people who live in forest do not find fame to be sweet, because they do not need fame. Thus, need is the sweetest of all. Nothing is sweet unless and until one really needs it."

I could not help but appreciate that today this answer was not just a theory to me. At the same time, I was struggling to explain this concept of  "need" to Nandini along with all the other new words. She was quiet and I could not make out if her mind had wandered or was she really listening. I was curious to know whether she understood anything at all. Had to put her to test! Holding her chin, I moved her face towards me. As soon as her big wide eyes caught mine, I asked, "Manthethla sweet jaado?" [What is the sweetest of all?]. Without missing a moment, like an obedient student, she replied , "Soan Papadi!!".




Translations :
"Amma Amma! Odopo!" - "Mother! Mother! Make me read!"
"Ee book soothu aanu!" - "I finished seeing this book!"


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