विस्मय

vismaya

विस्मय · vismaya · the smile widened past itself

From vi and the root smi, to smile. Vismaya is what happens when a smile is carried past its own edge — into the open mouth, the stopped sentence, the widened eye. Wonder. The old theatre manuals made vismaya the resting heart of adbhuta rasa, the flavour of the marvellous, one of the classical tastes a performance could leave in an audience. They considered astonishment a taste, like sweetness. Something a person could be fed.

Adults ration it. Wonder gets scheduled for holidays, outsourced to waterfalls and documentaries, postponed to retirement. The daily world is declared already-seen.

Children run the opposite policy.

At six, a wet ant carrying a crumb is a full evening's programme. The pressure cooker's whistle is an event with a build-up. Nothing is already-seen, because nothing has been seen twice yet.

At ten, vismaya changes clothes and becomes how. How does the plane stay up. How does the lift know which floor. The how is not the death of wonder; it is wonder that has grown legs and started walking toward things.

At thirteen, it goes underground — visible astonishment is not cool — but it leaks. The space video at 1 am. The same forty seconds of a song, forty times. When you find the leak, do not tease. Teasing seals it.

Here is the part that concerns the adults: wonder in a house is licensed, not taught. Children keep the permit only as long as they see a grown-up use one. So this evening, let something astonish you out loud in front of your child — the size of the night sky will do, even through clouds. Then dinner, as usual.