Marcus came to London from Estonia with his parents, one of whom was going to study there. At home, both his parents spoke Estonian with him. They put him in the children's nursery pre-school for daycare so they could go about their business of getting settled in London. Vishnu was the same age as Marcus although he joined the nursery a month earlier. He was a shy kid who spoke mostly Hindi at home and English at the nursery. Somehow, Vishnu decided to reach out and befriend Marcus. They played together even though they had no common language.

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A few days later, their mothers met for the first time as they picked up their kids. Both boys laughed so happily and loudly that it was impossible to not be caught up and infected by their shared joy and obvious love. Marcus's mom asked Vishnu's mom. "Where did Vishnu learn to speak Estonian?" Vishnu's mom was astonished and declared "He doesn't". Marcus's mom said but he just said "Thank you" to Marcus in Estonian. Vishnu's mom then learnt that Marcus spoke no English at all. Both boys had figured out a way to communicate with whatever shared vocabulary they could find between the two of them. Mostly,they just laughed a lot and found great happiness in simply being around each other. We all carry that little child we used to be, within us, who knows how to connect and find shared joys with love, even if we might have learned to 'adult it' as expected. True adulthood is when we can permit ourselves to indulge the inner kid to play happily and connect joyfully, with love and laughter.