Tanzerin

I grew up in a safe Bangalore. At least I didn't have to be taught at 3 what "Good touch" and "Bad touch" was. But I'm not sure I can say that about my daughter's life. With the next door school brushing aside rape allegations, I am agitated and enraged and like several other parents have embarked on a education spree. Several tips have cropped up over the past few days on how to teach your child to be safe. But at two and a half, I may be prematurely killing her innocence, not to mention how confusing I may seem to her. "Why are you screaming? If you scream that Bhoot is going to jump into your room." and I follow it up later in the day with "If someone touches you, scream with all your might and run to your teacher." "You must respect the aunties in school. Say thank you - they help you in the class, take you to the swing..." "If aunty takes you out of the class, shout out to Ma'am that she's taking you.

In recent times I have realised that several people feel obliged to apologise; apologise for being Hindu, apologise for a ‘Hindu’ party winning the elections, updating status messages on facebook or tweeting that while they may be called Hindu, they should not be mistaken to be fundamentalists. ‘I am not a religious Hindu. I am secular!’ I was raised in a Tamil Brahmin household. I remember spending my afternoons hearing tales from the Siva Puranam, the Ramayana and the Mahabharatha from my grandmother. I remember learning to draw a 18-pulli Kolam , making strings of mango leaves for festivals, learning Carnatic music and bharathanatyam, making a compulsory visit to the puja room after a bath every morning. As a young child, the stories of Parvati or Rama were fascinating, festivals were a lot of fun, rituals were intriguing and practices were just that- a way of living. In my growing up years I asked a lot of questions- why do we do this? How will it matter if I don’t do thi