Unseen Suzy

               My three year old is currently drifting through the imaginary-buddy phase. And from time to time I find myself being dragged off from where I sit, to underneath some table or beneath the stairs or right to the middle of the room or to under some tree, where she expects me to have ‘a few words’ with the invisible ‘Suzy’ for not having food or for not sleeping or for not eating her medicines on time or for not sharing the color crayons and so on and so forth. Incidentally she also happens to have a Suzy in real-life, her best buddy at play school. But if asked whether both were the same, she indignantly shakes her head and tells me that this is a 'different Suzy'.

The other day she totally spooked me out when she asked me to turn

around and give some water to Suzy, who it seems, was
standing right behind my chair with an empty glass! Heights of heaven! I'd now seriously like to believe that it’s from their own experiences of similar outbursts from the extremely proactive imagination of their own toddlers that the makers of The Ring, The Grudge, Arundhathi, Charulatha, Lisa and the likes derived their preternatural inspiration!

              Conjuring up imaginary friends is extremely common at this age; I comforted myself after a spell of googling on the topic just to appease the tingling sensation in my tummy. It appears that toddlers create imaginary friends for building a sense of security and comfort and sometimes even to exert control over their environment. Ahh… How sweet (and scary) are the whimsicalities of childhood :)

              Speaking of childhood and its associated fancies also makes me think about certain similar whims associated with ‘second childhood’…senility or more commonly referred to by all as ‘old age’.
 
…“Last scene of all, That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion, Sans teeth, sans eyes,
sans taste, sans everything…” - William Shakespeare.

              A couple of years ago I had come across a lady who by profession was a Home Nurse, trained to tend to the ailing aged. We were engaged in conversation regarding our respective jobs and the associated tensions and stresses that came along with it. The lady went on narrating the various experiences she had encountered in strange places with strange people. It appeared that for her, physical strain was much more bearable and inviting than the mental stress she underwent continuously while tending to the old. ‘Most of the aged live in a world of their own’ she had said. She went on to narrate her experience with an old woman who used to talk for hours and hours looking at the dark empty corridor beyond the open doors like she was addressing a long lost childhood friend. ‘For her, the friend was very much real, standing right there at the door and conversing back.’ She reminisced, her face creased in perplexity.

              The lady recounted many such unnerving instances she had come across while being with the various old people she had looked after; some talking to a long lost friend, some to their kith and kin far away, some to dead spouses, some to God and some to no one in particular. By the end of the conversation, I remember how I secretly & guiltily felt that I had the best job in the world :(

Coming back to childhood & thinking back to the early 90’s, I remember a stage in my own childhood when I truly, madly, deeply believed that elves were real. I used to pretend that I saw elves falling from the sky and used to run around the roof-top like a crazy, holding out a sack cloth to collect them… probably the root cause of my undying silly love for playing ‘Jardinains’!...

              Well ... and that brings me to you, Invisible Suzy…  After all, I guess I shouldn’t be worried too much about you in any case right now. Go ahead. Here’s your glass of water… ;)

Pic Courtesy: http://susancushman.com/

http://www.jardinains.com/