Ever Wondered Why?

My neighbor’s kid who is just four, came and sat beside me one day. We were both looking out of the window when an aeroplane passed and I knew that now I was going to be bombarded with questions.

This kid was not really an ‘ A for Aeroplane’ kinda kid. He knew what an aeroplane was. However his little brain had many doubts.

“How does it fly?” was the first question he asked me.

“Because it has wings!” I had thought this should satisfy him. But he was really beyond that!

“Yes, but they are metal wings. They are not bird wings.”

I was shocked! You don’t expect THIS from a four year old boy.

Well, he kept asking questions and I kept on answering him until he was satisfied.

“We use fuel to make it fly. The way we use petrol to run our cars!”

“If you use fuel, why does it need wings?”

Well that was a bouncer now! I knew the answer but it was difficult to explain it to a four year old.

“To maintain its balance in the air. The shape helps in directing the wind.” I spoke anyway, not expecting him to understand.

But he did and asked me many more questions. When we were finally done, my mother said,

“Here we have a future scientist!”

I wondered how ‘asking many questions’ was quickly associated to being a ‘scientist’! And my mother was not wrong. All the people who kept on asking questions eventually became great scientists, discoverers and inventors.

Ever wondered why stars twinkle at night? 

Or during rains we get the rainbows bright?

Ever wondered why the sky is blue?

Or at different times of the day it changes its hue?

Ever wondered why your cheeks go red hearing THAT name?

Well, if you had you would have got good fame!!

“Curiosity killed the cat”

Yet, I am writing this article asking you to be curious!

A paradox, isn’t it?

Well, that’s because I want everyone to be curious in the right way!

We are all interested in each other’s lives. We want to know if the superstar has an affair or not. We are more interested in the cricketer’s breakup and neighbor’s cat more than we are interested in our own lives.

And on the other hand, we are not thinking why we are following a certain tradition since years. We are not interpreting the signs of the nature. We are giving in to superstitions. We are following what everyone is. We are accepting things the way they’ve been told to us. We are not really trying to question things.

I am not saying that everyone should be as curious as Newton. Though it would only add up to the well-being of the society, I know it is practically impossible to have 7 billion Newtons. But being curious about little things that happen around us, finding out what they mean, trying to look beyond what is known is essential for the quality of our life. Most of us have to follow a same monotonous routine in the process of earning a living. And if we do not kindle a fire of curiosity inside, won’t this monotony be lethal?

However, there is something even worse than not questioning our surroundings. It is calling others who actually have achieved something, ‘lucky!’ It’s amazing how some people have the art to belittle huge efforts and achievements calling them sheer luck! Not that, luck doesn’t play a role at all or destiny has no significance. But even destiny only favours those who are willing to work hard.

We’ve all heard about Christopher Columbus. How he struggled to get funds from his emperor and finally migrated to Spain where his expedition was funded. When he was on board, the sea was rough and the sailors not willing. They even decided to throw him into the sea and return back. But his strength did not alter. Though the land he discovered was America, in his life he was well known for discovering the sea route to India. After all this effort, after being able to do what nobody could, he was belittled at a party which was held in his honour. People said he was just ‘lucky!’

However, Columbus was not that easy to handle. He gathered a crowd for a game and asked everyone to make an egg, stand vertically on the table. Each one present in the crowd tried but failed. At the end, Columbus gently rubbed the egg at one end creating a base of support and the egg stood still! Everyone was quiet. And then, Columbus made a statement that stands true even today. He said that “everything seems simple after it’s done!”

It was common sense that if an egg has to be made to stand it needs to have a base. Yet, nobody could reach there even after trying. Isn’t it funny that those who did not have common sense, could call a successful voyage a consequence of luck?

We all need to understand that it takes much more than luck to achieve something in life. It takes effort, sacrifice and curiosity. We need a lot of hard work, we need to sacrifice fun and sleep and we need to be curious to learn new things and question the old ones. Only then we can look beyond the known….