The Funniest Thing I Believed As A Kid CONTEST#4

The Funniest Thing I Believed As A Kid Is That A Tree Will Grow Inside My Stomach if i swallo the seed of any fruit...!

I still remember that summer afternoon in my home so clearly. I must have been 6 or 7 years old. The electricity had gone, as usual, and Ammi had cut fresh guavas from our neighbor's tree. They were cold, sweet and smelling so good. Me and my elder sister were sitting on the floor mat in our living room, eating them and laughing.

I was a very fast eater. While eating, I accidentally swallowed a big black guava seed. I didn't even notice it first. But Faiza noticed.She stopped eating and looked at me with wide, serious eyes. She said, "You swallowed the seed? Oh no!"

I said, "So what?"

She said in a very dramatic tone, "You don't know? If you eat a seed, a tree will grow inside your stomach. First roots will come out from your feet, then small leaves will come out from your head. You will become a walking guava tree!"

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For a second I thought she was joking. But her face was so serious and confident that my little 6-year-old brain believed it 100%. My heart started beating fast. I touched my throat. I touched my stomach.

"Is it true?" I asked.

Faiza said, "Yes! That's why I always take out seeds. Our teacher told us yesterday."That was it. That one sentence planted not a seed in my stomach, but a seed of fear in my mind, and that fear grew much faster than any tree.

From that day, my life changed completely.Hahahahah...!

I became the most careful eater in the world. Before eating any fruit, I would sit and take out every single seed one by one. Watermelon was my worst enemy. It has so many seeds! I would spend 20 minutes cleaning one slice of watermelon. If any family member offered me guava, I would say "No, I don't like guava" with a very brave face, but inside I was terrified.

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Oranges, apples, even tomatoes - I would check everything. Ammi started noticing my weird behavior. She would say, "Why are you taking out tomato seeds from salan?" I couldn't tell her the real reason because I felt shy. I thought she would laugh at me.

The most difficult part was water. In my childish logic, I made a full scientific theory. Trees need water to grow, right? So if I drink less water, the seed inside me will not get water and will die. So I started drinking very little water.Oh goodness soo silly of me....hahahaha

I would take only two sips after eating. Even In the hot summer, Ammi kept shouting, "Pani pio, garmi hai(Its hot, drink some water) and I would run away with my small glass.

Every night became an inspection night. Before sleeping, I would stand in front of the mirror in our room and open my mouth wide to see if any green leaf was coming out.Shot.i am imagining it right not and dead laughing...so silly of me

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I would touch my stomach to see if it had become hard like a tree trunk. I would look at my feet to see if any roots were coming out. I was so innocent.

One day, it became too much. I had eaten a small piece of bread and my stomach was paining a bit, maybe due to gas. But my mind said, "It's starting! The tree is growing! The roots are spreading....I started crying loudly. I ran to Ammi and cried, "Ammi, my stomach is paining, ny sister said a tree will grow inside me because I ate a guava seed last week!"

Ammi looked at me, then looked at my sister, and then burst into laughter. She laughed so much that tears came from her eyes. Sister was also laughing hiding behind the door.

Then Ammi hugged me and said, My innocent child, nothing will grow. Your stomach has acid that melts everything. The seed will go out in the toilet. This is what elder sisters do, they fool younger sisters."

She explained the whole digestion system to me in a very simple way. She said even if you eat 100 seeds, no tree will grow. My sister came and said sorry, and said that our cousin had fooled her with the same story when she was small, so she was taking revenge on me.

I felt so relieved and so stupid at the same time. That night, to prove my bravery, I ate a full guava WITHOUT taking out the seeds, in front of everyone. Everyone clapped for me. I drank a full glass of water after it and said, Come on, grow if you can....hahahahahahah..!

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And of course, nothing happened. No tree, no leaves, no roots.

Now I am grown up, I am studying and I also work at my clinic, and I know how human digestion works. But whenever I see a child taking out seeds carefully, I remember my childhood self.

I still tease my sister about it. I say, Remember you made me a walking tree for two years? And we both laugh.I think childhood is beautiful because we believe in such magical, funny things so honestly. That fear was real for me then, but now it is my favorite funny memory.

And that is the funniest thing I ever believed as a kid - that if I

eat a seed, a tree will grow in my stomach!