My earliest memories....

Age: 4 yrs old
Location: Home, Bangalore

Denny the boy next door, and I were playing. Suddenly we found 2 dead cockroaches on the ground. Urghhh, I shrunk away. He went to them and picked up one of them by its antenna. He came towards me with it dangling between his fingers. I started crying & kept moving back.

I'm convinced my phobia of cockroaches started at this point.
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Age: 4½ years old
Location: My Mothers house, Kerala

My mother, one morning after brushing my teeth & washing my face, told me that she had a stomach pain & had to go the hospital for 2 days. She asked me to behave & not give my grand parents any problem. She came back from the hospital after 2 days with a tiny baby wrapped in blankets, in her arms. Nobody would let me hold the baby. After sometime I noticed the baby was not in my mother's arms. I went & looked into everybody’s arms and nobody was holding the baby. I looked for the baby urgently coz I wanted to hold her while nobody was looking. I must have run into all the rooms some 3 times but didn’t see the baby anywhere. Where did the baby go?
My mother asked “What are you looking for?”
I said sadly “I can’t find the baby”.
She drew me into the nearest room and pointed to a tiny bundle of clothes on the bed. I looked inside & saw a teeny weeny baby with a tightly clenched fist waving in the air.

While searching for the baby I had passed that bed some 20 times. Whenever I recall that incident that surprised feeling is still there - how could I have missed seeing the baby? She was just there sleeping on the bed, all that time……within arms reach.
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Age: 5 yrs
Location: 1 Std Classroom, School, Bangalore

I joined the school 1 week after the session began. I wore colored clothes for a few days and then 1 day the tailor came to the class. I remember standing in my petticoat in front of the whole class while the tailor took my measurements for the uniforms.

When I think back now I know that the petticoat adequately covered me but the embarrassment I felt still lingers.
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Age: 6 yrs
Location: 2nd Std, School, Bangalore

I had a friend called Preethi who went home for lunch. Her house was some 4 -5 streets away from the school & took 10 minutes to reach. I took my tiffin along & ate my lunch in her house. If my parents ever found out they would have been horrified.
One day Preethi’s brother who studied in Frank Antony’s School brought his friend Suresh home for lunch. Suresh lived right above my flat in the colony. I don’t know which one of us looked more horrified. I was already making explanation in my mind as to what I’ll tell my parents. After lunch, Suresh waylaid me outside & begged me not to rat on him. I agreed magnanimously and went back to school relieved.

Now when I think about it, my thoughts automatically turn towards my '6 yr old' daughter and hope fervently that she is THE dutiful, obedient, transparent child that I think she is…….
…………..I bet my parents thought the same about me:-p.


There are more of them but I just wanted to put up the earliest four memories which stood out in my mind. Every one of you who reads this, please take it as a TAG-like thing to put up your earliest memories. I’d love to read them. But more importantly, you'd love to reminisce about it.