Thursday, August 03, 2006

Out of Babes' Mouths III

Big N came back from school today and was gulping down lemonade when it occurred to me that I should pass on to him the bit of news about the pesticides in soft drinks. Although he's not tasted Coke or Pepsi (yet), he's partial to Sprite (or 7 Up in India) when we go out to eat.

I said, "N, do you know what was in the news today? Coke and Pepsi and Sprite and Mirinda, they all have chemicals in them. Chemicals that are used to kill bugs like cockroaches."

"So?" he said, nonchalantly, knowing what was coming but pretending that it was no big deal.

"So if they have chemicals that can kill bugs, then they'll harm your body when you drink them."

"Oh, yeah."

A couple of minutes go by.

"So if I see a cockroach and I pour some coke on it, will it die?"

Somebody help! Will the cockroach die?

In the meantime, I've said to N, "yes, of course!" like there was nary a doubt.

8 comments:

DesiGirl said...

God! How do these kids think of these things? I tell ya.... some of the things my son comes up with just blow me!

How's litte n?

Anonymous said...

Found your blog through Bangalore Blogs - an ex-Bangalorean, now in the US.

To answer your question - no, the cockroach won't die - it could drown in the coke, if you pour enough on it, fast enough, but otherwise - nah! The things are truly indestructible.

Sujatha Bagal said...

DG, :)

Anon, you're right. I don't know if you remember, but we had a lesson in our English text books in school called The Remarkable Cockroach.

remainconnected said...

Sujatha,
Did "N" try the experiment to see the results after your affirmative reply "yes, of course!" ?

"N" conducts the test.

IF RESULT = 'YES as per mom's yes, of course!'
THEN "N" is confirmed
ELSE "N" would have many questions lingering in his mind till he gets convinced
END IF

Sujatha Bagal said...

Tanay, you don't know how glad it makes me feel to report that, thankfully, N cannot conduct that experiment, for the simple reason that so far, we have seen one cockroach in our house (which was promptly dispatched to meet its maker). As they say, perhaps where there is one there is a thousand, but for now I'll say we don't have cockroaches. But that will not prevent him from trying to pour soft drinks on an ant or something, but as Anon said above, the poor bug may die of drowning, but I'll steadfastly maintain that it was the soft drink that caused it. :)

Anonymous said...

wait until n asks teacher and teacher disagrees with you. teacher > parent, any day, every day, every where! no experiment necessary.

- s.b.

Sunil said...

he should do the experiment. And it's more than likely that the cockroach will die....but not too quickly. It could probably be drowned in the stuff :-)

Anonymous said...

Suj,
The Remarkable Cockroach. lesson. I dont know where u studied, but I do remember a lesson by that name. It started something like "We are talking about the lowly cockroach"..

actually, that was the second sentence I guess... :)