Appa, you have any trauma from childhood?

The 150 kmph bouncer from my nine-year-old knocked me down. It took me some time to respond. Leave childhood, do I have any trauma? Nah! What’s the meaning of trauma? Is she really asking about “trauma”? I enquired, and she knew more than I expected her to.

I answered, I don’t have any trauma. She asked me to think again. No, I don’t have any. So I put the question back to her. And she shared hers.

In 2024, while we stopped at a fuel station in Tamil Nadu, a stray dog came running and started biting people there. Unfortunately, she was also attacked. She suffered a very small injury that didn’t even require hospital care. But to be cautious, we got her the rabies vaccine. She took multiple painful jabs around the wound. She cried loud in my hands. Yes, a harrowing time for her and us. We always knew that it had an impact on her. Her behaviour changed when a stray dog is around. We have two dogs at home. After this, she is more careful with them too. But I did not expect her to call that “trauma”.

Then I recalled a similar incident from my childhood in 1992 and shared with her. My cousin (about five years) and I (about 10) were taking our cattle out in the morning for grazing. It’s a regular chore for us in the holidays. My enthusiastic cousin playfully caned a calf, and there came the mother charging at him. He fell down, cow trying to gore him. I tried to stop the cow, holding to her horn and screaming for help. Luckily, he was saved by a dry stone wall; he fell close to it so the cow could not reach him properly. But he sustained an injury on his head which required seven painful stitches. He was deeply affected by the incident for a long time. He did not visit us for more than a year.

My daughter wondered about my cousin’s experience. We still have a cow at home. So she could relate. She was eager to see the scar on my cousin’s head. After all, she doesn’t have a scar from her encounter with dog!

Is this the “anxious generation” that Jonathan Haidt wrote a book on? Is a cocooned, predictable life stopping them from experiencing the uncertain world outside? Are they too soft and mild to face the real world? I don’t know.

I would prefer my child to be tough and not weighed down by her trauma. So, I reasoned with her that trauma is a word with much greater meaning and depth. What she experienced doesn’t quite classify as trauma. Yes, it is definitely an incident that she cannot forget. As she came out of it unscathed, it need not be identified as trauma. She seemed to understand.

I hope she reads about the harsher realities of world — famine, war, abuse, riots, and pogroms. Animals cannot cause any greater trauma than other humans.

cerinpathrose@gmail.com

Published - August 16, 2026 12:22 am IST