The Table "{{Messages}}" For Active Record Class "message" Cannot Be Found In The Database.

I m getting an error message that says

The table "{{messages}}" for active record class "Message" cannot be found in the database.

I have doubly cross checked - sql is running, the database is connected and there is a table named 'messages' in the db.

Is there a specific meaning of curly braces around table names like '{{tablename}}'?
Do i need to rename the table to add these two braces in each side ?

Any suggestions to correct this ?

thanks a lot !