One day, on the way back home, 5-year-old Ananya and Sarthak heard someone say, “Take a left turn from the zebra crossing.”

“Zebra crossing? What is a zebra crossing?” they whispered to each other.

Ananya said, “I think a zebra crossing is where zebras cross the road.”

To which Sarthak confidently replied, “No, no, stupid; zebras must be standing there. We will sit on the zebras, and they will help us cross the road.”

“Really? Can we sit on the zebra?”

Her eyes lit up with excitement at the thought of seeing a zebra and riding it, as they had only seen them in textbooks.

“But it must be a paid service,” he added.

“Oh, it's chargeable?”

The sparkle in her eyes faded instantly.

“But where will we get the money from?” she murmured sadly.

He winked at her and pulled out a Rs 5 coin.

Ananya started jumping with joy, and both rushed to the place the stranger had mentioned.

To their surprise, there were no zebras. Instead, it was a busy main street with traffic lights, and the road was painted in black-and-white stripes, just like a zebra's body.

She pointed enthusiastically.

“Look at those stripes on the road. The zebras will come from there. I think they have gone to give rides to other people and will be back soon.”

Both took shelter under a nearby tree and waited.

While waiting, they noticed interesting patterns. Whenever the traffic lights turned red, all the cars stopped and people crossed the road. When the lights turned green, the cars moved again, and people stood waiting for the signal to turn red once more.

An hour passed.

The zebras were still nowhere to be seen.

They were now getting restless and confused, their minds bursting with all sorts of questions. The ride should not take this long, so why had the zebras not returned yet? Had they met with an accident? If yes, then how had all the zebras got injured? And how come they were the only ones waiting? Where were all the other riders and waiting queues?

They slowly realized that no zebras were coming back.

Curious, Ananya went to the nearby lemon-soda cart and asked the seller what a zebra crossing was.

He explained, “A zebra crossing is a place where people can cross the road safely. It is painted black and white so that it is clearly visible to both pedestrians and drivers from a distance”.

She thought for a moment and asked again, “Then why is it called only a zebra crossing? Why not an elephant crossing or a tiger crossing?”

The vendor smiled.

“Maybe because a zebra might have died while crossing the road. Hence, the zebra crossing is named in loving memory of the dead zebra as a symbolic lesson to cross the road carefully.”

Both stood gawking at each other. It took them a while to process everything they had been imagining and what had actually happened.

Giggling and making fun of each other's silly imaginations, they marched back home.

Twenty-five years later, they crossed paths on the same road, reminiscing about their childhood.

Smiling at each other, they turned to their 5-year-old daughter, Anika, and asked, “What is a zebra crossing?”

Anika responded, “A zebra crossing is a game in which you have to walk or run in a straight line while wearing skates. If you step outside the line, you lose and are out of the game.”

They burst into laughter, recalling their own versions of zebra crossings.

Perhaps adulting is not about finding the right answers but about slowly forgetting that there are many ways to see the same thing.

Anika looked at them, puzzled by their laughter, but soon got lost gazing at the black-and-white stripes on the road, wondering what they were really meant to mean.

Image (c) istock.com