Travel, food & life....as it happens

Monday, January 5, 2009

As a kid...

1. I always believed people could fly on their own-
They just didn't flap their hands faster n stronger. I always felt that one day someone who can flap their hands fast enough, hard enough and long enough....would be able to fly. Sofas, tables, gates....I would stand on anything and try jumping down hoping I would be able to take off. Hmmm.....

2. I believed that cinema actors were standing behind the screen-
And in a hope to catch a glimpse, I would be standing and waiting for them to emerge from behind the screen after the movie got over. We saw movies in an open air theater (AMC Center & SChool Lucknow). The parking was right outside the gate and the gate faced the backside of the screen. I kept hoping Dad would take longer to find his scooter....so I could see the actors.

I never saw them. I assumed we were at fault as we left way before they must have changed their clothes or jewelery.

3. I was mighty angry with mom for parting my hair sideways-
I thought that no one would be able to marry me. In the movies they showed men applying sindoor (vermilion) and the brides always had a center parting....not a single bride had a side parting. I assumed I was doomed to be single...all thanks to the way mom combed my hair.

4. I was scared of pregnant women-
I believed they ate children who misbehaved. To see a pregnant woman right after I made a mistake was one of my big fears. I felt she had come especially looking for me. For me 'a baby in a womans tummy' meant she ate them. That was the only way I knew things reached your stomach :) the mechanics of all this never occurred to me.

5. I liked challenging whatever my parents said-
One day I accidentally forgot to brush my teeth and my teeth didn't fall off (as claimed by my parents 'your teeth will fall off if you don't brush them'). This made me try it the next day too. And when they still didn't fall...I decided that mom n Dad weren't so right after all. So the next time they said something....the first thing I would do was 'do the opposite' n see if it held true.

6. I was very very very upset the day I realised that there is no Santa or Tooth fairy-
Shaila Didi (Swamy uncles daughter) told me this when I was 8. I refused to believe it. Not that Santa gave me anything anytime. Every Christmas, the socks I hung would be empty. But I thought maybe I wasn't good enough that year or had done something wrong and Santa was angry with me. Same with the Tooth fairy. Sometimes I even thought, maybe it was because I was a Hindu and they gave things only to Christian people. But I never believed that they didn't exist. But one day Shaila Didi sat me down and told me there was No Santa.

I asked Dad to reconfirm. And he said too...yes 'There is no Santa' :(
I was very sad that day.

7. I would sing along with the radio at the top of my voice-
I was not a good singer. I just couldn't carry a tune. In fact our Music tuition teacher put me on Harmonium and my brother on vocals and told my parents I was better with instruments (and not with vocals). In order to prove him wrong, I would sing along with the radio at the top of my voice. I wanted my voice to merge with the singers so they would sound like one. To me that would prove that I could carry a tune. And if it didn't merge, I would sing louder to drown the singers voice. Am so glad I stopped after a point :)

8. Lord 'Narsimha' & 'Kartik were my faourite

I was told if I was ever scared and I called out to Lord Narsimha, he would save me. So whenever I was scared, I would close my eyes and call out to him. I would imagine him standing in front of me and fighting whatever I was scared of. That took away my fear.

I was told if I ever lost anything....all I have to do was think of Lord Kartik. I did so everytime I lost something. Call it co-incidence or mind over matter and anything else, I do not recall a single instance when I have called out to Lord Kartik and not found my stuff. Till date!!!

9. I thought Kissing was the way a man gave a woman a baby (this is long after I came to know that a pregnant woman didn't really eat misbehaving kids :)

10. I believed I could see atoms & molecules.
I still do.

11. I wanted a minor mishap to happen around me-
So that I could go there and do the heroic deed of saving people or property and win a bravery award. I was obsessed with wanting to sit on the elephant on the 26th of Jan republic Day Parade and waving out the the public. Turning 14 was my cut off for that so becoming a teenager wasn't such a big thing on my list of things to be.

12. Crying softly was a dream-
All the ladies...older didis....and heroines in the films sobbed silently but I could never do that. I wanted to cry gracefully but after a few suppressed initial sobs I would burst into loud band-baja kinda wails. I even tried running to a bed...delicately flinging myself on it...holding the pillow and crying in soft sobs...but nothing worked. I felt suffocated and would eventually sit up straight and howl my tears away. It was a dream to grow up...stand by the pillar...holding a corner of a saree pallav and crying softly. Epitome of elegance n poise.

By the way I still bawl...can never really weep like a lady :(

7 comments:

  1. pregnant woman didn't really eat misbehaving kids!
    hilarious!

    ReplyDelete
  2. hm.. i remembers doing some of these and lot of other stuff too... lol

    ReplyDelete
  3. ueah the flights of fancies are so much fancier as a kid :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Chilhood and innocence. There are times when I wish for such innocent ignorance .. it was blissful! :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh yes utterly blissful....wonder why I always wanted to grow up fast then...

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh yes utterly blissful....wonder why I always wanted to grow up fast then...

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for stopping by :)