One of my friends recently asked me "What is your favorite ice cream?" I have always found these questions very difficult. I remember at school many of my friends had a 'Slam book'. It had questions like: "Who is your favorite hero?", "What is your favorite movie?", "Which is your favorite color?" and other favorites. They would ask their friends to fill in their 'favorites' in the 'Slam book' while parting; often done as a memory to keep. (Or possibly, they could check with their friends few year down the line if their favorites have changed(?)). As for me, I like all rainbow colors and enjoy eating vanilla as much as I do eating strawberry.
I remembered being asked the same question, almost a month back, by a fifth grader when I was at my homeplace attending a gathering, of families all new to a locality. When my parents and I reached the venue, there were few men around. Two groups immediately formed - one was of all men and the other of ladies - my mother and me. As more families joined that evening, the groups grew larger and a third kids' group formed. Few of the kids were playing and two middle school-going girls were chatting. While I was still hanging around with the ladies' group, one girl came up to me and asked me to sit with her and her friend. I liked the offer and readily joined them.
The initial introductions happened. We exchanged basic profile data. Having done that, the second round of questions started and one of them innocently asked, "Didi, which is your favorite color?" I paused for a moment and replied "all colors" while the other girl spontaneously replied, "I like yellow". The one who questioned also had a favorite color. (I realized in such conversations there is no interviewer and the one who questions also replies to it.) I kept wondering "Do I have a favorite color...mmm." Then came another question - "Which is your favorite song?" I found this tougher than the previous one - tons of songs to choose from. But the two girls spontaneously mentioned their favorite songs. We had a couple of more favorite questions before we ended our conversation and went for dinner.
What came to my mind thereafter was interesting. I thought how easy it is to carry out a conversation by asking favorites. Simple questions and simple answers. The kids are really good at keeping things simple. I wondered if in the busy adult life people stop having simple favorites and tend to stop appreciating simple things around. Just a thought.
