Happenings of a childhood

When I was small, too small to understand the world I was brought into (Manoj reminds me that I had enlightenment after I met him), I had quite a number of conclusions of my own (some put in their by my parents for their convenience) about everything around me, which means I was highly opiniated (even now, I am).
When I was 2 years old, I was sure that when I grew up, my parents would 'grow small' and then I would be the one who would 'take care' of them (Imagine me wringing and rubbing my hands together with a witchy smile he he he....). And I waited in vain for that golden oppurtunity of retaliation for all that force feeding and branding and the 'no s' and ofcourse those yucky cough syrups Papa pushed down my throat to fight germs. I even dreamt of becoming a doctor and 'treating' Papa with a huge syringe and the biggest needle.
My mother always scared me from swallowing any fruit seeds especially the grape and orange ones and her explanation was, "If you swallow it, it will germinate and will grow out of your ass". Once I accidentaly did swallow a seed and in panic had sleepless nights and kept checking any signs of greenery that would peek out of 'you know where'.
I grew up watching a lot of Hindi movies and had my own undertsanding of marriage and thereafter. I thought that a woman would become pregnant if she just slept beside a man or shared a glass of anything (usually milk, that was what they showed in movies) or just kissed him behind those dancing flowers. Well, please excuse my ignorance, I was unaware of the stork business.
My friends in school always fed my mind with ghosts and those female vampires prominent in our malayalee culture. I did have a vivid imagination and always seemed to have a close encounter of the third and fourth kind (I am pretty sure that Syamalan must have got hold of my ideas somehow). So I jumped at every hoot of the owl, the howl of dogs and always kept my fingers crossed, insisted on wearing my little neck chain with the cross on it even while taking a bath and slept between my parents. I outgrew it to fall into the fellowship of aliens and ETs in my later years till high school.
I so firmly believed in evolution and the forming of different species from an amoeba that I had secrelty kept a pool of dirty water in the backyard, hoping to attract any visiting amoebas in the neighbourhood. After every thunderstorm I went to spy out signs of any 'lifeforms' or atleast a dinosaur emerge out of that 'life' pool.
My father often told me that if I refuse to help my parents at daily chores even fail to get him a glass of water, I would be a lizard in rebirth. Since then I have a had an aversion for those creepy crawlies even though I am free of all the so called childhood beliefs when I became a Christian.
I was so sure that the earth was flat as a table and was quite surprised to learn the contrary in my school science book.
I found it difficult to digest the fact that we humans can have only a second set of teeth in our lifetime while I always felt there was enough time to brush my yellowing teeth after eating chocolates when I grew old and had another fresh set. My mother told me the truth, for once. So I was quite scared when I fell off a swing at grandpa's place and hit my precious new teeth on the hard floor. I was afraid the doctor would insist on removing those front incisors leaving me with a gaping hole which I would have to live with the rest of my life.
When our first TV set arrived, I couldnt resist the urge to look behind the box for better view and even come close to the screen so I can have a wider peek into this new world of images.
There were many other superstitions that were part of my childhood like, never swing your legs over your head when you are lieing on your tummy, do not look in the mirror in the night, dont clap your wet hands, dont clip/bite your nails in the evening, do not whistle and so on.
Coupled with these were my own fears of sirens which I firmly believed was the 'Koku', our family monster's howl before the prowl.
I thought that there was a world opposite to mine beyond my image in the mirror and often tried to catch a glimpse of it by hiding behind the curtain and keeping a watch over it (I should have sued those Hollywood guys for pinching this idea off me).
I firmly believed in the auspisiousness of the right part of your body so much that I insisted on walking on my right foot alone when I went to school especially for exams!
Then there was a time when I felt that whatever I voice out is going to turn negative and all that I think is going to happen. There was always a reversal of this belief at regular intervals.
Then ofcourse I felt someone was watching my everymove and knew every detail about me and years later I was shocked to watch The Truman Show, the Hollywood guys tricked me again...

Now, with my feet firmy planted on the ground and all those fears banished forever from my mind, I am trudging along trying to answer my kids in a 'harmless' way( I still belong to that category of people who are puritans at heart) about birth, humanity and wide wild world.