Today at lunch, as we chomped on batatyachi bhaji, limbache lonache, and poli made by Aji, Baba bear asked us if we know why Mamma bear and he are living in different houses. I told him that Mamma bear had already spoken to us about it and we have even read some books (that Mamma bear gave us) on that subject.
He said he’d still like to know what we know about it. So, we told him that like how two people can get married if they love each other, they can also get themselves a divorce when they don’t. But before that, they need to be sure that they don’t want to live together. So, they have to live apart for some time and then, they have to go to a judge who gives them a divorce.
He told us it is about choice and consent, big words he said we may not understand now, but we need to know about. So, we sat down and he explained about them. We got ‘choice’ immediately. But even though we’ve been hearing about ‘consent’ since we were very small, we don’t know whether we really understand it yet. We understood, however, how they applied to Mamma and Baba bears’ divorce. To stay together or apart is a choice and to stay married or not requires consent. And consent, Baba bear says, is a two-way street. Both have to want to do something or else it does not get done. If one of them says, ‘No’, then it’s a no. It’s simple, he explained. We think we get it. A bit.
He asked us how we felt, and we told him that honestly, we would prefer to sleep in the same bed with both, Mamma and Baba bear, if we could have our way. That said, if two people don’t want to live together, it won’t be a very happy family if they have to, and we would certainly not want unhappy bears in this family. So, perhaps it is better that they get themselves a divorce.
We asked him if this means that he and Mamma bear are katti forever. He said that is not what it means. It only means we don’t need to be married. He said that just like we get a marriage certificate from a court when we get married, we get a divorce decree when we get a divorce.
We wanted to see how it looked. But Baba bear told her that it’s just a piece of paper and he hasn’t yet got a copy, and that he’d show it to us later. That’s cool.
He asked us if we know what to tell our friends if they ask. We told him that nobody cares. We have so many friends and not one of them is concerned about whether our Mamma and Baba live in the same house.
He said he was very proud of us, and when we finish our meal, could he give us a bear hug (which we haven’t had for a long time)? Yeah, sure, we said.
After we were done with the conversation, we finally asked him if we could ask the one question we have been waiting to ask since this conversation began. You see, we love asking Baba bear questions, and he loves answering them (sometimes, we ask Alexa or Google also). So, we were surprised at his reaction, as if we were about to bite him. He said he’s always there to answer anything we’d like to know and asked what it was that was bothering us. So we finally blurted it out: How does the air go inside the poli?
Baba bear burst out laughing at this. And so did we. We don’t think it was that funny, though. Do you?
