My Phobia My Friend

“Hippopoto-Monstro-sesquipedalio-phobia” is the word for “Fear of long words”. Sounds absurd right?

Well, by definition phobia is an anxiety disorder that causes irrational fears. There are many crazy phobias in the world, but the latest and also the stupidest on the list is “Namophobia”, which is the fear of being without cellphones.

Three years ago in UK, a bunch of demophobics – i.e people who fear being in crowds, joined hands to come up with a solution to address their fear, which we now know it as “Brexit”

Jokes apart, phobias are serious but therapies do help if one can afford. So my option is either try to work around or make peace with your phobia.

I went for a second option. Well I have a phobia towards an imaginary friend. Not mine, but others imaginary friend.

The first incident happened when I was six. It was a Sunday night. I was playing with my friend at her house. It was just me, her and her ancient-looking granny in the house when the power went off. So we lit the candle in the living room and sat on the chairs. "If there was the power we could have played catch," I said. "We still can. See” she picked a ball and gently rolled straight into the dark room in front of us. I was confused, but after a few seconds, like a scene out of some bloody horror movie, the ball came out of the darkroom rolling towards us and stopped right at my feet. I asked her in a shivering voice “Who is in there?” she said” That’s my friend Kaya. Oh…you can't see her. Only I can”. I had a strange reaction to the situation. I fainted. I was down with fever for a week and when I woke up my mother told me that the family had shifted to a different town and I asked: "Did they take kaya with them?”

The second instance when I was forcefully made aware of someone’s imaginary friend happened 7 years ago. My friend left her 6-year-old daughter to me to babysit for a few hours. We played for some time and then I opened my laptop to work and she sat down to do some drawings. After some time she held a paper in front of my face. The coloured sketch showed a man and a girl holding hands and one more girl standing a bit far from these two. Though the sketch looked bit ominous, I said “wow, that’s nice". “This is you” she pointed to an eerie figure of a man. "This must be you," I said pointing to the girl next to the man. She said “No. I am here and pointed to another figure standing far”.

“Oh. So who is this?”

“That’s my friend. She likes you”.

“That’s sweet. Have I met her? What’s her name?”.

 “Her name is Kaya. Oh, you can’t see her”

Blood started draining from my face.  “Sweetheart do you and your friend mind if I go out and make some calls?” After an hour my friend Anita met me at the door.

“Are you crazy? You have called me 14 times. “Sorry. It’s serious. Your friend has an imaginary daughter”. 

“What?”

“I mean. Your daughter has an imaginary friend. “Are you insane?” she asked.

 “Your daughter is the one with an imaginary friend. Not me"

"It is quite natural to have an imaginary friend at that age for a girl. I don't know why that freaks you out". “Samy. Come out we are leaving.” Can I request Samy to take kaya with her, please?

Last week, I came late to home, but right in time to tuck my daughter in. So I went to her room and lied down next to her only to hear her shriek "Go away, you are crushing my friend”. I quickly got up and said, “I don’t see any toys”. “Not toy. It's my friend”. “Honey. Where is your friend?” silence “What is her name?” no response. “Is it Kaya?”. “I like that name Daddy”. And she turns and asks “Did you like it too?” Unlike before, this time I had no escape, I had only one option – to embrace my Phobia.  So, my dear Toastmasters and guests, I am not sure she is here, but if she is, I present you “Kaya”.