Moana, Pokemon, Harry Potter, and a glass of milk

     “Moana’s father had lost a lot of weight,” Aadya told me. “He had taken the entire family of Moana to another part of Motunui which was completely barren.”

              “Was it the same island where they lived?” I enquired.

              Aadya was telling me about a funny dream she had last night. She normally does not remember dreams, but she surprised herself by vividly remembering every detail of this particular one that she had during her exam days.

              Her exams were very interesting. After having completed an online test conducted by the school, the students were informed that the exams should be treated as practice test only and that her unit tests would be conducted in a “multiple choice question” format while using "zoom" for invigilation. Her mother struggled with the concept of split screen which allowed her to use “zoom” app with video for invigilation while the exam portal could be used on another part of the screen. Some other students in her class solved the problem by using two different devices.

              However, owing to curtailed syllabus and multiple revisions, the exams have been failing to sufficiently challenge her, and she is enjoying herself to the fullest, as all other academic activities have been suspended by the school during examinations. This gives Shaivi time to sleep till late, while Aadya gets free to do her favourite activities for a longer duration.

              Of late, the girls have taken to drawing and painting with zest. A young teacher, Miss Archana, who herself is an acclaimed artist in the Madhubani style of painting has agreed to teach them online, and they are glued to the tablet every Tuesday and Friday from four to six in the evening. Their cousin, who is a  trained Bharatnatyam dancer, had also shown interest in the classes after her NEET (UG) exams were over, but was unable to continue for more than a couple of weeks. My two daughters and their cousin spent a lot of time going through their collection of great Disney movies, “Moana” being one of them, and coaxing the lady of the house to experiment in the kitchen. Of course, they helped, so my wife did not mind at all. In addition, they read a lot of fiction. Both Aadya and Shaivi revised and re-revised the Harry Potter series till my wife was sick of the sight of the books.

              I had talking to them on phone shortly after Aadya had finished her Computer exams while Shaivi had got up and got ready for her tests which were due to begin in another couple of hours. Aadya was telling me about her dream which she vividly remembered.

              The dream was inspired by the movie Moana in which the protagonist was the daughter of the fat, pleasant and good-natured, if somewhat strict, king of an island called Motunui; and how she ends up answering the call of the sea to go to an adventure which ended with bringing prosperity to the people of the island.

              “The part of Motunui where the king took Moana was completely barren,” said Aadya, continuing with her dream. “The area was clearly labeled in somewhat dirty handwriting as Sand, Deep Sea and Ocean. It appeared in a font as though Sponge Bob had labeled the entire island and the surrounding sea.”

              At this stage, Aadya herself remarked that mixing of characters in this fashion made absolutely no sense, to which her younger sister readily concurred.

              “For some reason,” Aadya continued, “Moana’s father started jumping up and down on a patch of sand on the island. He kept at it till a huge crater developed. From the crater came out a person and three Pokemons.”

              Growing up, my daughters were obsessed with the cartoon characters of Pokemon. They would watch the cartoons whenever they got any chance, and often dreamt of it. I can recall many instances of Shaivi recounting to my wife or me, her dreams involving different types of Pokemons. She used to question me about the nature and working of these cartoon creatures. However, she never confused these fictional characters with reality. At any rate, for the past one year, ever since they got the Harry Potter books, they have given up on all older obsessions and now talk about all things in “Potter” lingo.

              “Moana got into an argument with these new characters,” Aadya continued with her dreams. “They had a big fight; which Moana did not like at all.”

              I enquired whether the fight was with the person or with Pokemons, and was told that they argued as a group. Continuing with the story of Aadya’s dream, I was further informed that Moana started sulking after the fight, and took to her notebook to write down about how decent people and Pokemons should be like.

              Aadya has always had the concept that there is a right way of doing things. Even if she does not always follow the expected behaviour, she inherently knows that there is a right way which should be followed. Shaivi does not have too many qualms of this nature. She has recently picked up a new motto – she questions every statement with a very simple philosophy – “WHY”. Whenever Shaivi chooses to follow this principle, she follows every statement made in her presence with the question “Why?” Once, she managed to irritate her elder sister with her constant questioning while she was simultaneously talking to me, and they started arguing this philosophy in detail, ignoring me completely. All my interjections resulted in no more than momentary pauses in their argument, till I finally settled the matter by asking Aadya to tickle the younger one.

              Due to Corona pandemic, I am forced to stay in a different city, and my communications with the girls take place mainly by voice call. While, Shaivi monopolises the phone when she is talking to me, she does not allow Aadya any exclusive time with the phone, and keeps hounding her till she succeeds either in snatching the phone or in sharing one of the earphones. However, irrespective of who is on phone, they keep communicating with each other even when one of them is talking to me. I resultantly get a live commentary of the antics and pranks of both. Alternatively, I am treated with special comments and keen insights of the working mind of two girls being threatened into having their milk or being asked to exercise.

              The present conversation, however, was an exception, where Shaivi listened intently, with few special comments and no long interruption. After all, this was a brand new story which she had never heard before, and it was quite in line with their favourite topic of conversation over past few years.

              “Moana was cheesed at the behaviour of the person and the Pokemons that had appeared out of the crater in the labeled island which had developed due to jumping of her not-so-fat father, the king of Motunui,” the story continued while I listened intently. “All of sudden, a man came from nowhere and approached Moana.”

              “I have complete faith in you, Harry,” said the stranger to Moana.

          “Isn’t this something Dumbledore had told Harry Potter in one of the books?” asked Shaivi, excited to learn that the dream now had elements from all of her favourite stories.

              “I have no idea,” Aadya replied.

              From the background, their mother called them for a glass of milk.