Adam’s Atoms

Like any other species, the Kumárans need children to guarantee the continuation of their race. Despite their very long lives, a typical Kumáran couple only raises 2-3 children.

Unlike with the humans, we cannot talk either about Kumáran babies or their toddlers. Instead, starting with their birth up to the age of about 100 years, the best way to describe them is as cubs.

The Kumáran cubs look nothing like the grown-up humanoid Kumárans. The easiest way to describe their appearance to a human is as red tiger cubs. Indeed, the Kumárans live their first one hundred years as felines. Their bodies are covered with a medium long bright red silky fur. They walk on all fours, moving, as expected, with feline elegance.

They do not have hands and fees, they have paws. That means, for one, that they cannot write, they cannot use silverware, or do anything the human babies and toddlers use their hands for.

For the first ten to twenty years they feed on their mother’s milk. Just like the grown-up Kumárans, they love to socialize. Their parents typically befriend other Kumárans who have cubs and let their cub play with the other cubs. The playing cubs look just like any playful feline cubs, touching each other, stroking each other with a paw, wrestling.

At about ten years of age, they can say their first word, the proverbial mama, or something like that. By the age of twenty their parents switch them to solid food. Since they have no hands, they eat the same way as cats. At twenty-five, they start going to school. While they are still not able to write, they learn how to read.

Soon, they start studying logic. Later, mathematics. Because of their inability to write, or even to push buttons, they learn how to do complex logical and mathematical operations strictly by using their brains. To the Kumárans logic is the key to all understanding. They are just as logical as the Vulcans of Star Trek. Unlike the Vulcans, however, they do not lose their emotions. Mathematics, to the Kumárans, is a branch of logic. So a good understanding of mathematics is quite important to them.

They also play various ball games, typically using their heads to move the ball to wherever they want. They can run very fast. As part of their education, they are often asked to find a place they have never visited before and to get there fast. Their teachers, of course, look after them, making sure they do not get lost too far.

How do their adult humanoid teachers manage to catch up with the fast felines? Quite simple! Remember that the Kumárans are shifters. They simply shift into felines, similar to adult red tigers, and run just as fast as the cubs.

At the end of the cub period (age 100), they undergo a major transformation that takes thrity-one days. They shed their red fur. As a result, they feel very cold and tend to shiver. They cover themselves with blankets. They cannot dress up because their bodies keep changing all these 31 days.

They develop arms and legs, then hands and feet. They straigthen up. They have trouble walking. At the end of the thirty-one days, their transformation is complete. They now look like five-year old human boys, but with no hair. They can finally wear clothes since by now the rapid changes have ended. They need to learn how to walk on their feet, which they do entirely on their own. It usually takes them only some three days.

The boy’s parents, relatives, and friends prepare a special Son-of-Kumára ceremony to welcome him into his humanoid shape and, more importantly, to reassure him that he is one with the Kumáran people forever and can always count on them. During the ceremony they pierce two holes into the bottom of his left earlobe and insert two golden earrings as a reminder of that reassurance. Traditionally, all Kumárans then wear two golden earrings in their left ear for the rest of their lives and beyond. Not necessarily the same earrings all the time, but always two of them.

They give him a golden pen as this is the time to start learning how to write. They also give him a golden watch. This is more than a time information device. It has much built in functionality, including a communications device and a computer interface. Naturally, he also receives a standard computing device, and other gifts.

Additionally, during the ceremony, the boy gets to eat with his own hands (and tries to learn how to use eating utensils). He eats many goodies for the first time in his life. This is a very joyful occasion, not just for him but for his proud parents, and for his relatives and friends.

After the 31-day transformation the young Kumárans start growing their scalp hair, their eyebrows and their eyelashes. The brows and lashes just take care of themselves. The scalp hair now has the same qualities as the adult scalp hair. Unless they control it, it has a fast growth rate. But they have to figure out how to control it, which may take about half a year. So, their hair grows and grows and grows. If left uncut, it would grow longer than the boy’s height. He would soon start tripping on his own hair. So, he gets his first haircut, or rather a series of regular haircuts until he gets his hair under control.

His hair at this time is not as bright red as his fur was. Rather, it is golden blond. His skin has no freckles at first, but the first freckles start appearing within a month, first on his nose, then on his cheeks, then the forehead and on his ears. They look very much like human freckles at that point and stay that way till the boy is 200 years old.

During the second century of the boy’s life, his hair very gradually turns red. From the initial yellow gold, it turns strawberry blond, then reddish blond, then redder and redder, until at the age of 200 it is bright golden red.

As you know, the word kumára means gold, so Planet Kumára means the Planet of Gold. And, as you also know there is plenty of gold on Planet Kumára. Yet, the Kumárans did not name their planet after the metal, they named it because it is their planet and because of the golden tone in their hair and skin. So, the correct interpretation of the name Planet Kumára is the Planet of the Golden People.

Anyway, by the age of 200, the boy not only has the shiny red hair he is going to have for the rest of his life, he now looks like a 10-year old human boy. A redhead with freckles all over his face. At this time, freckles start forming on his arms, legs, stomach, chest, back, and everywhere else. By the age of 300, his skin is covered with his own unique pattern that he is going to keep for the rest of his life. At that time, he looks like a human 15-year old. He has his pubic hair and his armpit hair. He also has started growing facial hair and probably decided to stop growing it, as most Kumárans do. He has also finished his formal schooling that has continued all this time. His childhood years are over.