A new friend whom I met during my most recent trip back to Bangkok was sitting on my lap as we were going through the first few pages of The Little Prince together. This was 4-year-old Jade’s first exposure to the French classic and her sparkling brown eyes were transfixed on the pages as I was reading off them. Soon we got to the famous part where the narrator recounts the time during his childhood when he drew a picture of a boa constrictor who had swallowed an elephant and how the adults all thought it was a drawing of a hat.
“Nuh-uh,” Jade closed her eyes, shaking her head slowly. “This is not a boa constrictor with an elephant in his tummy.”
“But, Jade, that’s what the narrator is telling us,” I said. “That was what he had in mind when he drew it.”
Jade turned around to look me in the eye. “He was kidding, Leela,” Jade uttered a faint sigh. “Don’t you see? That’s khao khai khon!” Continue Reading →