"बाबा, लाइफ म्हणजे काय?".

Saturday night we all had gone for a drive(!) after dinner. As usual Rucha & Arya favorite songs were playing and in general lot of kalla was on and your truly was having a tough time reigning in both of them. Suddenly out of all the chaos and noise Arya touched my shoulder from the back seat and pop came a question "बाबा, लाइफ म्हणजे काय?".
As Rucha & Arya have learned to read whole sentences now, I am usually prepared for questions from both of them on hoardings, Truck's backside gyan and stuff like that. But this was totally unexpected and it took me by utter surprise. Suddenly the car was quiet. I looked at Smita to see a Big प्रश्नचिन्ह on her face too.

Next 10-15 minutes I tried to explain to Arya what is LIFE. Began with living and non Living things so on and so forth but she was not satisfied with the explanations. And I had to give up.

This question really got me thinking and during this I revisited almost all the important events in my life. First event was my father's demise, then my school days, college days, failure in HSC, Success in Diploma, the 6 months I spent in looking for a job. The joy of joining first job. Coming to Pune tasting real success in professional world, getting married, buying a new flat, the agonizing and painful memories of my Hepatitis-B treatment and loss of our first child at the time of delivery and the support of my family during that really low key period.
The first time I boarded a flight and first time I saw snow covered mountains. Birth of Rucha, Arya the joy and elation of holding them in my hands. all these memories flooded my thoughts in almost 10 minutes. It was like Flashback in a movie.
I am wondering Are all those moments my Life or the period between those moments is my life?. I can say the Total of all such events is something which I can refer to as my life. But it didn't answer the basic question which prompted train of these thoughts.
How do I explain a 7 year old meaning of Life? or to put in other words Have I actually understood what is LIFE?
The thought is scary as we never accept our non-knowledge. But this one question from my daughter has opened a can of questions(!) which have prompted a drastic change in my though-process. May be I will have to look beyond my daily routine which we usually and mostly refer to as our life and look at broader horizons to understand LIFE. Then may be I will be in a position to explain it to my 7 year old daughter who's life is her family, school and playing with friends, watching TV.
I sincerely hope someday I do get that capability to make her understand meaning of Life. I can confidently say It will be the greatest achievement of MY LIFE.