Naturally, an incomplete mind of a small child would not remember much about their first 3 years in the world after their birth. Similarly, vinay doesn’t remember much about the first 3 years of his life as an infant and as a toddler. But one incident which happened when he was just 3 years old, would never get erased from his memory. And to be very clear and precise, that unexpected incident of vinay's life was contributed by his own father. That incident just shattered the mind and the psychological strength of a budding 3 year old child.
One morning, vinay was getting pampered by his uncle. I would say, he was being dressed up for his play school. Uncle was trying hard to calm down the playful boy and was finding difficulty in fitting that small legs in to the tiny trousers. Suddenly, the child screamed, “Hey! I need to rush to the toilet”.Vinay’s father was in the drawing room at that time. He was dark and short with a straight wavy hair and his hairstyle was similar to that of the yesteryear Bollywood star Rajesh Khanna. He always made sure that his ears were covered with his straight long wavy hair. Just exactly as Rajesh khanna did. His father, who was playing the stereo system loudly from the drawing room, may be letting the neighbors known about his new brand electronic device which he got from Gulf, heard vinay’s voice and came to vinay and shouted, “Who is that old man screaming here?”. Before he finished asking that, his big palm slapped Vinay’s right cheek tightly. That poor 3 year old child reacted to that by making his trouser wet followed by a loud cry.
Vinay’s uncle was startled at vinay's father's shocking behavior and was unexpectedly silent about what had happened.
Why would a father slap his own child that rudely? Was that necessary to behave that way towards a small child?
That incident was big enough to sow the seeds of afraid and hatred towards his father in the mind of vinay.
Vinay could clearly remember one more similar hateful incident which happened exactly a year after. Vinay and his parents along with his uncle moved to Cochin as his mother was bestowed with a promotional transfer to Cochin by her bank. In fact, the transfer was been requested and initiated from her side itself. She had a justifying reason for her request and it was a good central board education for the kids and above all to stay away from the distraught situation at the ancestral house of her husband.
Let me come back to the hateful incident which i mentioned a while ago.
One night, Vinay’s mother was frying pappad (south Indian salted snack made of gram flour) in the kitchen with a lighted candle near to the stove and she was surrounded by the kids and their father. There was a power shut down at that time and it was raining heavily outside. Vinay found it adventurous and interesting the entire process of frying a pappad. His mother gently pushed the pappad into the hot oil in the shallow steel pan and then the pappad bubbled out with a fizz and rustle. Vinay was so happy seeing that. Meantime, his father warned him not to be so close to the pan as the oil might splash on his face. His mother also warned him. But, he could not stop himself from looking into the pan. Then it happened, a small minute drop of oil splashed on Vinay’s face. He just said “aiyyo” and quickly moved back rubbing his face. Instantly, his father stood up and said, “I had warned you not to go near the pan” and then a tight slap on his right cheek. As usual, his trouser got wet. Vinay was fumbling his trouser and ran out of the kitchen.
Again, what’s the need of that slap? Instead his father should see whether his son was hurt or not. But, strange. Vinay was unlucky. For a 4 year old kid it was too much to handle in a strong way. Consequently, his father became the fear of his life. Vinay strated behaving dreadfully infront of him and rambled all the time whenever he had a conversation with him.He started worrying about everything he does, thinking someone is watching him. He became conscious about everything and became so serious about what others think of him. I would say these incidents did affect his confidence, his mental strength and even his personality in a bad way.
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