As I said earlier, I am not a morning person. My metabolic processes, the alertness of my mind was more towards the afternoons and the early hours of the night. It was never in the mornings. 

Why did it happen like that? Maybe, I didn't get potty trained. If my mother would have insisted that I should wake up early in the morning and do the regular stuff, I could have been doing things differently now. Maybe we needed a stick but she was a very liberal person. I was never told to go to a mandir (temple) early in the morning because I am a Kashmiri Pandit. That's what lots of my compatriots did. Our parents left those choices completely to us.

They may have had a very humble beginning from a village or wherever but their mind seemed to have evolved because none of the children had any compulsions. We were left to our own devices. Our parents lived as much of a conservative and modern life as all families at that point of time lived. During ‘herath (Maha Shivaratri)’, a Panditji would come and there was astrology too. But everything is in balance.

Another thing from my childhood that continued later on in my life was the love for mysticism. I am somebody who likes astrology a lot, and I associate with such people even now in life. So, the origins were there.

I remember my ‘Yagnopavit’ (A sacred thread or janeu is received by a boy that he continues to wear from his left shoulder to right crossing the chest. The ceremony is generally performed before the advent of adulthood) was done by Swami Lakshmanjoo, a mystic and a renowned scholar of Kashmir Shaivism. He came all the way from Ishber, Nishat for the ceremony. There are his pictures somewhere in my house even today.

To be continued….