Tarun, my 8-year old nephew, was pleading to have one of his favourite foods – a bag of potato chips. “But that brand does not have MSG…really, I have verified thoroughly…” he cried, and managed my buy-in. Unusually sharing a few, he smacked the new bag clean.

Evening and he turns up and tells me matter-of-factly, “Here’s the 5 Rupees”.

“But why are you returning that? I never asked you to. And never was it a loan…”

“No Nani, you are poor people. We should not keep debts ever; so here it is…”.

How did this uniquely notorious 8 year-old specimen land wisdom 80 years ahead his age?

Convincing him not to repay took some effort, and set me in doubt too. On what basis would Tarun judge repayments in the future?

• The amount involved?
• The relationship?
• The reason behind the actual transaction?

That poses to us even more intriguing questions. Consider our appearance on this planet – effortlessly easy (so to say) – we do not remember ourselves “struggling”. How would we repay our mothers for the pains she suffered?

Wonder at the intelligence behind combining just five basic elements to form anything and everything in the universe: from a parrot’s beak to a tamarind seed to a twinkling star to a human tooth. Can we even thank that Supreme Intelligence enough, let alone repay the debt of having received this ability to wonder?

No doubt we are in eternal debt – we and everything that was, is and will be, are dependent realities. Will we the dependent ever be able to repay the grace and love of the One Independent Reality? Realization of this fact may be the closest we can get…