I grew up in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and spent my childhood vacations in Kenya where my mother's family is from. In Ethiopia, my parents were hosts to anybody and everybody who visited from India. One of my early memory is of a palmist who visited from India and saw my palm and alerted my mother that I was not going to study at all.  I was furious because I loved school. So in order to make my study line longer for days I held a butter knife over that line and folder my fingers over it and walked around. Another early memory was of another Godman who visited and had a small statue of God that he carried around with him. Everyday he would eat only after he offered food to his God. One day he left and then we got a telegram with the following message: "Forgot God, can't eat, please send fast". That was a popular joke among us kids. We laughed and recited the line over and over