I was exposed to great deal of darkness while growing up, confesses Somy Ali

Former Bollywood actress Somy Ali says while growing up, she was exposed to a great deal of darkness, but she did not lose her innocence - Jyothi Venkatesh

"I was born in Karachi, Pakistan and lived there till I moved to the US at age 11. My fondest memory is when my father would take my younger brother, mom and me to eat pani puri and then we would have meetha paan.

This was our Friday evening ritual after eating dinner in a restaurant," she recalled ahead of Children's Day.

Talking about her favourite children's song from a Bollywood film, she shared, "I used to love the song Lakdi Ki Kaathi and sing it all the time.

It was from one of my mom's favourite movies, Masoom. The kids were absolutely adorable."She believes that we are all products of our childhoods.

"Our personalities develop between the ages of 3 and 5 and our brains fully develop at age 25.

Children are like sponges and they soak up everything they are exposed to, good and bad," she said.

"Given that I was exposed to a great deal of darkness growing up, while I did not lose my innocence, I became a teenager and a young adult who was quite gullible.

And now at my age, I am the complete opposite and always say that everyone is a good person until they screw you over," she added.

The founder of NGO No More Tears calls herself a huge pessimist when it comes to mankind.

"I believe one is lucky if they find actual genuine friends who you can call at 3 am if you are in dire need.

I give everyone a chance, but the minute I sense that the person has ill intent and wants to take advantage of me, I disassociate immediately," said Somy.

She says she is obsessed with words. "I would open up the dictionary at random when I was 6 years old or so and learn a new word everyday. I still do that to this day. Yes, I am a huge nerd," she shared.