‘Is it true that we are the most intelligent creature on this planet?’, Samantha asked her mom. Jane was a bit surprised to hear such a different question from her nine year old girl.

She took a pause before answering as she was aware of the wave of questions coming her way. It is true Samanta, that human being are the most intelligent creature on this planet, she answered.

‘And why is that?’, Samantha was curious. Jane had already anticipated this. She asked Samantah to come over and sit in front of her. Looking into Samantha’s eyes she started explaining,

‘The answer is in your question. The reason we are most intelligent because we ask WHY? For eg, colour of most leaves are green, so we asked why and we found out it is because of a substance called chlorophyll. A man asked why apple fall on earth and he found the answer – Law of Gravity. After finding an answer we share our findings with other people in our community and slowly but surely everyone on the planet know about it. There are many intelligent creatures on this planet but they don’t ask why. A tiger never asked why sky is blue, so it never found out. We asked why fish live in water and we found that their respiratory organs extract oxygen from water. Our ability and our awareness of mind to ask WHY, is what differentiates us from all the other creatures.’

Samantha’s little mind grasped whatever she could and then she ran to the fish tank. Looking at the Gold Fish she said, ‘You live in water and I live in air. I know you won’t ask why, but I want you to tell that I love you a lot and because you won’t be able to survive in my bag without water that’s why I am not taking you with me to the school.’ Jane loved her little girl’s affection for fish and then turned her attention towards the 9pm News.

She was looking at everything from Why angle. Why people kill each other? Why everyone is so tensed? Why news channel show all the negative news? Why Why Why… She closed her eyes and another question popped in her mind, ‘Why don’t I read a story book to Samantha and relax’?

That’s a bright question, she patted herself, stood up and switched off the TV.