Innocence

I remember some of the things I used to think when I was a child. It amazes me that I will never forget some of them.

I knew that the date changed everyday but the month continued for many days. I was not sure for how long. So if it’s August today it will still be August tomorrow and it was August yesterday as well. But if it’s Monday today it will change to something else tomorrow and was something else yesterday. I must have been around 3 at the time.

When my mother was carrying, I thought it was perfectly logical to assume I would have a baby sister simply because my mother herself had a younger sister. I was quite confused the day my brother was born. I had learnt something that day. I was 4 then.

My explanation of the radio was that there were little people inside the box.

I don’t remember if I truely believed in the existence of Fairies or Gods or Ghosts though i liked hearing stories about them. But I remember this. One day in school, when I was 8, a girl in my class told me of her realization that if you said the words “ram-ram” before you slept at night, you would have no nightmares. I found that interesting since the mantra i used to help avoid nightmares was quite different. I always had a nightmare on the days I forgot to say it before I slept. It was a prayer my grandmother had taught me:

“Alatoor hanumane…swapnam onnum katturde….swapnam vanaal…valittu thatti kaliyaname”

(Lord Hanuman of Alatoor….please don’t allow any nightmares…if nightmares do appear…please lash them out with your tail)

This classmate got away by just saying "ram-ram". How was that possible? I immediately concluded that it was all in the mind. It was not Alatoor Hanuman or Rama that was keeping the nightmares away, it was our own minds that was doing the trick. I stopped having nightmares on the days that I forgot to say my prayers. But I never forgot the prayers I learnt as a child.