Exam time funnies

So here I am revising Social Studies with my kiddo who is in 5th grade. This year they have a lot of facts about India's struggle for Independence. I am re-learning facts about the Swadeshi Movement, the Dandi March, the Battle of Plassey, the Mangal Pandey episode, etc. Yeah, I know parents get to go to school twice in their lives! :-)

Well the funny part I did want to capture in my blog was the cute set of remarks S made about all this. He was reading about the Jaliawala Bagh incident; and obviously was moved by the atrocities of General Dyer. So his first set of questions were around "Who do you think is more cruel? Hitler or Dyer" Then he made this connection on their names. It was kind of cute, funny and weird at the same time. According to him, Hitler must be so named because he would have loved to hit people. "He mimed out Hitler with a stick hitting people should "Hit, Hit!" Then he extended the analogy to Dyer and said, that man must be wacko and wanting to make people "Die", hence he was named Dyer. Interesting how kids run their imagination run riot in mundane history lessons.

The next part of the lesson talked about the Moderates and the Extremists in the Indian National Congress. Yawn. Then there were the names of the freedom fighters.. amongst them Gopal Krishna Gokhale and Lala Lajpat Rai. So apparently LLR here was an extremist because he didn't believe the British could be asked to leave politely. GKG was a moderate because he believed the demands should be made without violence and in a peaceful way. We got into a discussion of what we would have been had we been there at the time. S declared that he would have been a moderate but for the Jaliawala Bagh incident. Had he been there, he would have surely killed that Dyer apparently and thus would have been an extremist. And suddenly it stuck him that there was a Gokhale kid in his class. So amidst giggles and laughter, he said, he would have been like Lala Lajpat Rai since S was also a Rai (surname wise) and the class mate would have been like Gopal Krishna Gokhale. Ah the brains of a child works overtime in making facts fun to remember. :-)