Describe an embarrassing childhood memory.

This was when I was 5 years old or perhaps 6. I know it was in Kindergarten or first grade that much I do know. It’s almost a faded memory but bits of it still remain in my brain and refuses to leave me. It is embarrassing but I was such a young child and I can be excused this little mishap.

So I was in school, in class and in the middle of the session after the recess I felt my tummy startling to rumble with that familiar feeling. I remember that morning I couldn’t go do my business and my mom tried to get me to drink hot milk saying that I needed to go before I left for school but I just couldn’t do it. And now I was paying the price. I tried to get the teacher’s attention but she was otherwise occupied and so after a little while I left the class and headed the long way to the bathroom. Unfortunately by the time I got there I had pooped in my pants! Two girls, slightly older saw me and were laughing as I took my clothes off and stepped into the loo. The school had maids on each floor and one of the ladies came to my rescue after scolding the girls. She made sure that I was washed completely and she washed my school uniform as best as she could and put them in a plastic bag. She then found a bathrobe, since I was naked, that was only slightly bigger than my size and made me wear it and sent me back to class.

Imagine the look of surprise of my teachers and my classmates when I came back to class in a bright, orange bathrobe and sat down in my place. The maid told my teacher what had happened. I got into the school bus and met my older sister and told her what happened. Also – my mother must have had the shock of her life when she saw her son in that bathrobe – “Where, what, how?” – but yes we managed to recover from this traumatizing episode! :P

As most of the Western world – and some countries like Egypt in the Middle East – are “enjoying” their snow fall, this guy who has never experienced snow is melancholy about the subject. Well, not true! As I have stated earlier I have seen snow and felt it in my hands but I was wee baby, just 2 years old back in 1978 when my family went to England (Newcastle in particular) to see my mom’s sister and her family who were living there at the time. Now I have no memory of the snow of the cold and how it felt so it’s as good as not having experienced it all. It’s 35 years later after all!

Now during the first 11 years of my life I lived in Kuwait and even though we got no snow, we did get a winter season. It got cold enough for people to wear winter clothes, a concept that would be alien in tropical Kerala which is my home state. The women would wear sweaters and coats or jackets and woolen leggings. The men would wear long woolen socks, sweaters, vests and thick coats. As kids I remember my school uniform – woolen underwear like pants, over which went the pants, a vest, a sweater and a coat. I would be roasted in my own juices if I wore that and walked around for 30 minutes in Kerala in December/January. It’s not that hot but it certainly is not cold!

I wouldn’t mind some snow. What’s life like without 4 distinct seasons?