Guess each one has certain phobia, but I have a real strange phobia. Am shit scared of dolls, be they teddies, stuffed toys, etc etc. Wonder how I caught up with it, but the sight of a Teddy Bear or a Doll or a stuffed doll, makes me run at the speed of light. Everyone ridicules me for this strange fear. My cousins love to tease me, with the n-number of stuffed toys they have. Friends always threaten to buy me a teddy bear, so on and so forth. So very unlike a girl is what they say. But I HATE those stupid toys.

Now this uncanny fear that has been growing with me from ages, has always put me in embarrassing situations. Once, a big gang, about 15-20 of my cousins and me (age group of 7 to mid 20's) walked into this big store on Brigade Road (Bangalore). Since I was the leader of the whole pack, I told me to go their way and very cautiously (as always), avoiding the stuff toys section, I go to the place where u have some books etc. Now these fellas, headed by eldest male, decided play trick with me. Me as busy as every, reading a fairytale, when suddenly I see there is darkness in front of me, thinking the lights might have gone, I look up to see, a big black Doberman, and lo! I scream at the top of my voice. Everyone in the store started wondering what the hell is happening; least they expect a girl to scream at the sight of stuffed toys. All eyes to the section from where the scream originated. Now this backfired on my dear cousins, and they did not know how to react to the sudden attention that was on bestowed on us. All we did was gather all our folks and march out of the store. Phew! It was a stupid situation and then these little ones, apologizing for what they did.

Once we all landed at the famous Kemp fort, this place is full of guys, who dress up as cartoon characters. Now how do I get into that damn place, without these characters noticing? They love to shake hands with people entering the store. Somehow I sneaked in, hiding myself behind my brother-in-law. Once inside I thot I would not have to worry about these pesty characters bothering me. No, that was not the case. One fella dressed as Mickey Mouse, starts walking with us, since we had about 2-3 kids along with us. And me trying to dodge was another scene. Another character dressed as an animal or so, started chasing me and reluctantly I had to let our another scream. I jumped into the lift and was out of the store, waiting for my folks to finish their shopping without having to worry about me scream at the sight at these characters.

Strange it may sound, but I just cannot stand the sight of the toys. After these episodes, I have atleast decided not to put people with me in a bad position. But then they somehow invite trouble by teasing me and there is no way I can control my shrieking. :)