I grew up in Bangalore and went to St Teresa’s High School. My father was a struggling lecturer at that time and we grew up with typical middle-class values. I was the middle child in the family, with an elder sister and a younger brother. We sisters fought a lot, over clothes or books or games. When I was growing up, a lot of my sister’s clothes were handed down to me. And whenever she was given something new we would erupt into a fight over why I was being deprived. In fact, since she was the elder one, my parents would take her to the movies and we’d be kept at home because we were too young. That bothered me a lot because I thought I was being ignored as the middle child. My brother, on the other hand, had no such problems. He was, like all boys, immersed in his own world, and happiest when he was outdoors playing marbles or cricket. I was more into dolls and playing the home-maker with toys and kitchenware.

As children, we also read a lot. As a result, when all my friends were poring over their Nancy Drews and Hardy Boys, I was wolfing down James Hadley Chase. Their covers filled my teachers, mostly nuns, with consternation. At that time, even a James Hadley Chase cover caused quite a scandal.

Looking back, school was fun. Of course, we never quite felt that way while we were in it. Sometimes, we would get into trouble for chewing gum in class. It was forbidden in class and so naturally it became one of the coolest things to do.

I was quite an arrogant child and always asked the wrong questions. I remember one incident when I questioned my moral science teacher, who was a nun, about the existence of God. I asked her why God didn’t bail you out when you were going through a rough patch. She was quite shocked but she tried her best to explain how God basically tests you while taking you through rough patches.

My father was quite different in certain ways. He’d give us blank cheques and ask us to hop over to a book shop and buy all the books we wanted. Another thing I enjoyed was practising yoga and I even made it to the national level in yoga competitions.

A lot of my childhood memories revolve around a rented house we lived in, which has now been pulled down. It had an asbestos sheet, which had holes in it. And every time it rained, water would seep through. But as kids we never complained about the poverty. Instead we had a lot of fun keeping vessels under the holes and listening to the sound of water falling into the vessels. As you can see, I had a simple but memorable childhood.