Cracking the Da Vinci Code - Kanav

It was a Saturday evening in early 2014 when I bought Kanav the game of snakes and ladders. But tired because of a hectic day, I was able to play only one round and I told him that we would play it in the morning.

Later, on the bed, Kanav kept on talking about the game and snakes while I was asking him to go to sleep. But, I fell asleep earlier than Kanav. Twice through the night, Kanav woke me and asked if its morning now. But when at 3am I woke up to go to toilet, he followed me there thinking its morning now. Laughing, I picked him up and we went to the other room where we played snakes and ladders till almost 4:30am. Ecstatic now that his wish was fulfilled, I was able to convince him to go to sleep.

This was the first time when I seriously acknowledged of restlessness in Kanav. His urgency to do things and passion has just increased multifold since that day. Many times in the morning, he would wake up before his Grandparents rise at 4:30am. It’s normally something which has been promised to him by one of us or his friends which does not let him sleep. Even if his friends are to meet at 8am, he would hardly sleep through the night.

I and Preeti try not to promise anything to Kanav for the Mornings. For if we do, neither would he sleep nor would let anyone else sleep. But we do make sure that his passion is continuously fueled and given direction.

He was mighty impressed by a few science experiments we made at home for the kids in our after school classes. Last week he opened his science book and said, “Papa, I want to do experiments.” There were two activities in his science book which both of us and Jay did together. I did my best to help him understand the phenomenon but I am not sure if he has. But I am sure, he would again surprise me by explaining some other experiment with a similar concept someday.

Tejaaswani’s creativity has a rubbing effect on him and so does his favorite cartoon channels that run Mister Maker, MAD, Art Attack type serials. He keeps on borrowing printing papers from me and keeps creating drawings which he has to explain me later. But one day, he created a boy and marked all the body parts on it. He recently created a figure of Earth ass is visible from space in Paint Brush. And it was remarkable for me to watch him get excited when he showed me his drawing of Saturn in paint Brush.

I am not sure, what Kanav is going to do in his life but his Passion reminds me of my younger self. His dedication to the task at hand and his persistence for executing a new idea are extremely unique to his personality. I and Preeti have pledged to give him all the guidance and as much resources as we can to develop himself into an individual with a lot of passion as well as patience.

Driven by a great fire within, Kanav today wants to become an Artist, Scientist, Soldier and an Astronaut. So, one day I introduced him to Leonardo Da Vinci and told him that he has all right to dream to be all of them.