Last week while dropping my daughter Aishani to school, she asked “Papa, what is permanent in life?”. For a moment I was taken aback. I had not expected such a thought-provoking question in the morning rush hour. It took me a while to respond “oh, that’s a good question, who asked you?”. It was their STEM teacher at school. I didn’t know if I should answer this question technically, emotionally or philosophically. I thought emotions would be apt for an 8-year old kid and blurted out “Love… Love is permanent”. I myself was not convinced on this and the young lady figured out that her dad had no clue whatsoever and changed the topic soon.
On my way to office that day, I tried to answer this question to myself. The first obvious thought that came to mind was that “Change is the only thing permanent in life”. Ah well, that’s such a cliché. Google showed me that tattoos are permanent. It’s incredible how all questions end up at google. Later that night I declared to her “Aishani, there is nothing permanent in life”. She thought for a while and replied “ No papa, it can’t be. If there is nothing permanent, then why did they even make that word up”. Oh, I was clean bowled with this sense of logical thinking. The hunt for something permanent continues. Hope this hunt itself is not permanent. Dear readers, do let me know if you think something is indeed permanent & also a right way to put it across to young audience.
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Keep it simple, stupid. 
As cliche as it sounds but change is what I find permanent in life for me. 😊
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I think pursuit of excellence is permanent. 🙂
One can never be too good at anything, and there’s always things one can learn.
But as you point out, maybe nothing is permanent in our life. As Heraclitus of Ephisius says referring to constant motion – No man ever steps in the same rive twice, for its not the same river and he is not the same man.
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Wow!! What a thought provoking question!!
Well, there are 2 things I feel might be considered to be permanent in life.. one, the memories we make in our life but it is again debatable as few may say there are different ways you can lose your memory. The second one is the biological relationships, this can never change. My parents will always be my parents 🙂 I am curious to see what fellow readers feel about “what is permanent in their lives”…
Cheers!
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Cheers to Aishani for churning our mind to think amidst all the chaos surrounding this world at the moment.
Primary thought that comes to my mind when thinking about the word ‘Permanent’ is changes as you pointed out, be it be physical, emotional or intellectual.
Right from the moment of Aishani’s birth till date, she’s had to deal with changes of getting accustomed to various cultures, integrating with people all over the world and learning something new everyday.
She’s applied critical reasoning in her mind to ask you this question and later sounded you out on the basis of your answer which I think is great for her overall development as well as of this this blog😉.
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