I don’t want to forget this.
We are in Kashedi Ghat. Climbing. It’s the afternoon of 18th April in 2012. A few trucks pass us by, carrying various types of loads. Some are empty. My niece who is keeping a watchful eye on the surroundings and taking the beautiful drive in Konkan, has a question for me.
“You know these trucks, they carry stuff from here to there?”
“Yes,” I say, “what about them?”
“These truck drivers, who drive them?”
“Yes?”
“Do they ever get curious to know what’s inside? Do they ever stop and look at what they are carrying?”
I laughed.
I don’t think I ever asked this question, but I know that this question had occurred to me, many years ago. I explain to her, how it works. They are already aware what they carry. The person who asks them to carry the cargo usually tells them what’s inside.
This is curiosity at two levels. First, her own curiosity about whether the drivers are curious, and then about the drivers’ curiosity itself. This curiosity possibly spans another level – the third – her own curiosity about what’s inside the trucks.
It’s meta-curiosity.
