If I were being cynical, I would answer the question “What was the dumbest thing you believed as a child?” with the answer: “that there is any justice in the world.” Obviously, there are funny answers to that question, poignant answers as well as thought-provoking answers. Here are some of them:
Some of us grew up thinking that adults could actually know if we were lying or doing something wrong because of some sort of extra-sensory perception. Some of us believed that teachers lived in schools, that they had no other life besides that!
I believed this; not that we would get to China, but the opposite side of the world; wherever that was (my geography was distinctly dodgy as a kid). I felt that it was only logical; clearly I was not the only one.
This may refer to our pledge when we said “all Indians are my brothers and sisters” and secretly whispered “except one”. Or it could be a cynical comment on the currently-divided society we live in; the suspicion and distrust with which one Indian views another. One commentator thought it should have been "The statement is all Indians are my brother's ancestors". Different strokes for different folks, clearly.
Some of us misguidedly believed “10th board k baad life set hai” Who among us hasn’t heard their parents' lies: “बीटा अभी पढाई करलो, बादमे आराम"... some of us believed them…oh the sweet, gullible, trusting innocence of childhood! Who knew that after ‘matric’ came college and more swotting, and then some more cramming, and then the struggle called life!
But we saw Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Space Jam where the toons and humans co-existed happily (or not)! A lot of childhood beliefs died a brutal death when they explained animation to us! “I still refuse to believe they don't” insisted one tweet, though.
On the other hand, some of us also believed it when we were told that biting fingernails could cause a tree to sprout from the stomach, which would block the food pipe and cause us to die! OK, well no-one really believed that one, I think, but it stopped a lot of kids biting their nails!
…. and some believed that kissing was a de-facto wedding ceremony.
Many parents invent some or other excuse to avoid or delay having ‘the talk’ with their kids. On the other hand, some kids (me) are assured by a mean older sibling that they are adopted. Just for the record, I never believed my brother when he told me this; I could only have inherited my nose from my father and my obstinacy from my mother!
I still find it hard to understand how an enormous, heavy, lumbering thing such as an airplane becomes airborne and then ferries hundreds of people safely over thousands of kilometres! Roads in the sky makes much more sense.
...especially older siblings! But then parents can be too… they tell you "बीटा साइंस में बहुत scope है!" or they make you eat dozens of carrots promising that it will make you see, cat-like, in the dark! I don’t know about you, but I'm fairly happy not be a kid anymore – for instance, I believed that every adult is responsible and smart – now I look around me as an adult and find that I don’t believe in fairy-tales anymore.
Do you have something interesting you would like to share? Write to us at [email protected]
