How is it physically possible for a 7-year-old to talk non-stop, without pausing for air, water or even a short restroom break?

Gy has always been a talker, that is to say, ever since she discovered that her lips could produce sound!
By now, you would have guessed that the ‘Energy’ in the title refers to her. And, by obvious deduction, I fall under the ‘Exhaustion’ tag; most days, I literally do! Fall, I mean. Usually into a deep slumber from which I would rather not be woken!

She is at the age when everything is fascinating, holds promise and life is a cornucopia of questions. Who is on hand to invariably answer these questions? Ah, you got it right.

Who does NOT have the answer to every third question? Yes, you scored that one too, if your answer to both questions was ‘the mom’.

Books have taken up a very important role in her life, of late and both of us being avid readers, I was naturally thrilled by this turn of events. What I did not anticipate, however, was the flurry of queries that would emerge from this new-found love!

For her last birthday, my good friends chipped in and gave her a gift voucher, which, after consultation with Gy, we decided to convert into a book card. This would allow her to buy books of her choosing and since Indian Mythology is high on her current reading list, she and her dad went and picked up around 10 books in that genre.

Needless to say, she was hooked from the word ‘Go’. It became difficult to tear her away from her books. To say that I was happy would be an understatement. I was  also, secretly relieved that her endless stream of questions would abate.

Oh, how wrong I was! If anything, the books fueled an interest far beyond anything I could have anticipated! Now, she would read a book and ask me questions related to it! Bear in mind that the last time I read these stories was almost 20 years ago and although I do know the basic storylines and can answer trivia questions with some ease, I cannot, for the life of me, get into intricacies of relationships between characters or how Krishna could die, since he was a God!

Sample this conversation which we had a few days ago:

‘Amma, how many brothers-in-law does Draupadi have?’

‘Er.. I am not sure.’

‘Haven’t you read the story of Draupadi?’

‘Yes, I have. But it was a long time ago.’

‘You should do what I do. Read it everyday. Then, you won’t forget anything.’

And, in the meanwhile, while I contemplate taking a good, long, peaceful nap, Gy is busy crafting a bow out of a hula-hoop set and a skipping rope!

Well, I guess we do have one thing in common: the energetic need to do something.

Mine is to make every effort to shrug off exhaustion, stay awake and answer questions to the best of my ability. (Yeah, right!)

=================

Linking up with ABC Wednesday

E is for Energy and Exhaustion

Click the link above to read more entries in this linkup