They keep calling me "special", but what's so special about me? I mean, yes, I did move a bookcase with my mind that one time because it was about to fall on my three-year-old sister. It was a one-time miracle, a spur of the moment thing!

Now my mother, real religious woman and all, believed I was blessed by some Goddess since she used to pray day and night when I was in her tummy. My grandmother, on the other hand, thought someone had put a black magic curse on me and great evil would come knocking one day. "Yes, Tinni was saved but at what cost," she bellowed everytime the subject came up for discussion.

But my father saw things differently. I'm not quite sure what he thought it was — magic, curse, blessing, superpower, alien-like, et cetera, et cetera. Knowing him, he probably didn't care. All he saw was money. I don't blame him. We did have a hard time putting food on our plates. "Tanu, people will come from all over the world and pay a lot of money to see what wonders you can do," he used to say.

And so he did everything in his power to make me do it again; move things with my mind. He motivated me with fear, element of surprise, love, treats, more fear.

But, nothing.

After years of what many will chalk up to as child abuse, my father gave up and went back to being a...