Had another conversation with Pupu today.(For those who don't know: Pupu turned 12 in December).
She would like to have a time machine. If she did - she'd travel back into one point of time in the recent past....but more importantly she would like to roam around during Akbar's reign - talk with the non-royalty as well (to get an understanding of how things were from the other side of the fence). Roam around some more. Admire some of the monuments and temples and much-famed architecture. Make sure that Nadir Shah had not stolen the Peacock Throne and make damn well sure that the British hadn't run away with the Kohinoor. She would have stopped the two World Wars and made sure that Hitler hadn't risen to power. She'd also like to travel around in Europe during the time of the renaissance. She finds that time period in history completely enthralling - from what she's read and from the stories that she's heard from her daddy.
She was contemplating on the benefits of having an invisibility cloak as well...but given one choice she had no doubts: a time machine is what she wanted and needed - to mend some things in the immediate past and to prevent some catastrophes in the distant past, which didn't preclude having a jolly good time otherwise....
She asked me what I would have liked. I knew for sure that I wouldn't really like a time machine. I wouldn't mind one...but I wouldn't know how to fix or mend anything in my life or anyone else's (I'd probably have wreaked even greater havoc inspite of all my intentions), and as for going back in history - I can't think of whether I would have or could have really changed even one thing for the better. I probably wouldn't mind traveling back in time as some form of amusement – but a Time Machine is not something that I really need....although sometimes the idea is somewhat tempting.
The first thing that came to my head was a magic carpet.
Pupu however didn't seem to think that a magic carpet was a good enough gig. What good would that do? If I wanted to go somewhere that badly, surely I could just go there instead of desiring a magic carpet? Yes and no, I grunted. I even tried enticing her with the magic carpet idea.
"I could send it over and you could come and visit and we could go over to Prophet's Town".
She snorted and replied, “If you make me travel over the Atlantic on a magic carpet, I'll get daddy to go over and tweak your ears.”
Ouch.
That's when I said that the magic carpet would mean one could travel instantaneously. For with a magic carpet, I explained, all travel would be instantaneous. As soon as you wanted to go somewhere, you could be there while "flying" for an infinitesimal second on the carpet.
Pupu was not convinced. That would take all the fun out of traveling!
But sometimes the destination is more interesting than the time spent on traveling, I argued. The only time Pupu was even remotely interested in the flying carpet was when she asked me if she could go back in time with it. I replied in the negative. No, it's only for travel through space not through time. She was rather disappointed with my choice.
I didn't think it was an out of this world choice (although a very practical one) - so I said, Oh, oh wait. I know. I'd like to be like The Pretender. I gave her a brief overview of The Pretender, who can be anything he wants to be and be a bloody genius while he's being what he wants to be – which includes being a hot-shot physicist one day to a brilliant neurosurgeon another day to a geneticist to a mountain climber to a detective to a phenomenal artist (painter) some other day to even being a marvelous and somewhat naughty con-artist.....So he could choose to do anything. He could do whatever he chose to do with flair, finesse, and flamboyance. I forgot to tell Pupu this last bit - but in between he was keeping at bay the members of the murderous organization who were after his life.
Yes. I had it. I wanted to be the female version of The Pretender (make tonnes of money while being an absolute genius at anything and everything while shooting the evil ones who wanted to kill me off). It couldn't get much better than that.
But Pupu wasn't having any of that. No, no Shilpidi – you can have only one wish. You can't make multiple wishes in one go.
So that Pretender-choice went phut.
Oh, okay Pupu – then I stick with the magic carpet. (It really would be of tremendous practical benefit at this point in time - I can't get beyond this feeling although I wonder whether anyone else would want to use it...).
Time Machine for me, she said....without any doubts.
And then we went off to talk about other things...
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