Happy day amma: Lalitha part 1:

We spoke in a secret language when I was very young. Nobody else could understand it. I was convinced that I could talk in it because my mother understood what I said and responded in the same language. We used to call it ‘atu putula bhasha’. We could converse in this nonsense gibberish for hours and it ended with great giggly laughter, kisses and hugs. It went something like this “ kichona kamaki kim? Or some such nonsense!!

She was a magical and powerful person for me. She could summon Hanumantha to be with me invisibly so that he can guard me from dangers (which came in the form of going to the loo outside in the night etc.) If anybody was sick, she could summon Indrakshi (goddess of health) to make them better, we were told not to joke about or say bad things because ‘Thathasthu devathas’ would be roaming around saying ‘thathasthu’ and the bad thing will come true. I was petrified of saying bad stuff. Whenever she spoke, the lizard would approve and she said ‘krishna krishna’ and looked emphatically at the audience. Many of her stories involved ‘Shiva and Parvathi’ going around the sky doing ‘vihara’ and they would chance upon good or bad things people were doing. So I felt like the sky is studded with all these Gods and goddesses roaming invisibly and my mother knows them all !!!

She is still magical and powerful for me. When I boarded the longest international flight, my flight fright came down by recalling her powerful statement “as long as I live, I won’t let anything happen to you”. My anxiety comes down always with that recollection and I know she won’t let anything happen to me.