Tigerlilly - Lobsang Rampa

CHAPTER ONE
It was my good fortune to be born in an era when family life
meant something, when mothers found fulfillment in the home
and had no need of a second occupation to allow them to
function more fully as a complete being. A rare occasion
indeed to return home from school and find an empty house;
mother was always there, sewing perhaps, or busy crocheting
(an art which she taught me when I was quite young), and
always a nice tea awaited a hungry child.
As I was somewhat headstrong, there is no doubt a more
firm discipline would not have been amiss; but that was not
her way.
The moments which provided the greatest satisfaction were
the times spent in the evening, as the day was ending and night
approaching, before it was time to light the lamps.
Mother was fond of reciting this little verse:
‘Between the dark and the daylight,
When the night is beginning to lower,
Comes a pause in the day's occupation
That is known as the children's hour.’
She believed very strongly in devoting time to her offspring,
and in catering to their mental and spiritual needs as well as
their physical well-being.
The things one learns in one's childhood days seem to linger
in the memory for ever, even more permanent than the present-
day computer with its memory bank. School was fine, I never
minded studying; but that was an everyday reality, something
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