The grey matter
“Mumma, can you tell me a story?” my 4 year old son asked. It was one of those days when I had used up all my stocked up stories and now would have to create a new one from my tired brain. I grumbled for a while and reluctantly started off with ‘Once upon a time’. He then interrupted me by asking, “Is there a bad guy in this story?” I scratched my head and thought, I shouldn’t be telling him about bad people. So I said, “No dear, it is a story of a little girl”. “Mumma, there has to be a bad guy or else it won’t be a story” he said flatly. I was so bowled over by his comment that I forgot the story I was weaving for him. A bad guy was as important as the good guy for him? He seemed to love both the hero and the anti-hero equally. And why should I blame him? Do we all not rejoice the deadly Villan in the movies and the heroic fights between the good and the bad? If there is no struggle, no sad moment, no evil or absolutely no negativity in one’s life, the story of