At six, I had a lot of existential questions. What was death? What if people in coffins woke up? And who was going to deliver my presents: Santa, God or Rabindranath Tagore?
would later in life tell me “looked like the sun”. “How many people out there have this look?” I wondered. “There’s God, Santa and now this dude. All with huge beards and a wise grin.” It was disconcerting. Which one delivered the presents?That December my mum also started explaining Hinduism to me. I know it was then because I remember what I was practising on the piano. Suddenly, there were lots more gods, but the beards varied hugely. Many had no beards at all.
That year I could not wait to see the TV animation of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. I’d watched it the year before and it was the most magical thing I’d ever seen. I loved Rudolph. I could already play the theme tune on the piano, and Rudolph himself was simply fantastic. Christmas finally came and I waited up in bed the whole night. Who should I expect? Could I be wrong about Santa? Was he real after all? Or would I be visited by some other bloke with a longer, more flowing beard? Or should I expect someone blue with eight arms and an elephant trunk? I’d seen one of those on the living room wall and I’d been told that was also God. Definitely not the one Miss Churchill talked about in class though. Hmm.
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