Day 12: Wonder of Wonders

While waiting in queue in front of a billing counter at a store or while waiting for a train at a railway platform, or inside a train or plane for that matter, there is one thing I do instinctively whenever I spot a family with kids–check out whether a child resembles his father or mother. Does she have her father’s eyes, and doesn’t he have his mom’s smile? And look, that girl over there doesn’t just have her mom’s curls–she even has her dimples!

Sometimes a kid resembles a parent so much, it is almost uncanny–and it fascinates me. Inspite of having studied a good amount of Genetics in college–or perhaps because of it– this carryover of traits from one generation to the other causes me much wonderment. I mean, really, how come a chain of molecules is able to store such precise information as the colour of eyes, the shape of eyebrows and even the shape of toes and toenails, and ensures that the information is not just passed on but expressed too! I have also noticed that it is difficult to spot a resemblance to oneself. I am told my younger daughter looks a lot like me (which of course delights me, all parents tend to be pleased when told that their child takes after them) but to my eyes, the resemblance, if any, is pretty vague.

My brother once told me that he knows all there is to know about the mechanics of an  aeroplane –he is an engineer by training–but he is still awestruck everytime a plane takes off and is airborne. How is a behemoth of a machine weighing thousands of kgs able to fly at all?

I asked my elder daughter what amazes her, astonishes her, awes her the most in this world. At first she hemmed and hawed and joked (why does an apple fall to the ground? why doesn’t it grow wings and fly to the moon?) but eventually she obliged and told me about two things. One, the value of a currency note. It is only paper, a piece of printed paper–how come it assumes a specific value just by virtue of the number printed on it? How does a thousand rupee note become ten times as valuable as a hundred rupee one, when both are probably worth not more than a few paise in ‘real’ terms?

And the other one. Why do some seriously loaded people take so much care to save a few bucks? I was about to launch into a lecture on the need to save to become loaded in the long run, and how it becomes a habit with some etc etc, but checked myself in time.

It struck me that both her ‘wonders’ were related to money. Does that mean something? 🙂

What is it you wonder about the most?