Today is not the Children’s
day. Nor is it a day dedicated specially to kids. Today is just a normal 6th
Sunday of the year 2013; same moribund and monotonous Sunday which comes with a
periodicity of 7 days. Nothing special about it.
I am lying in my bed waiting
for Dispirin to show its effects against my severe head-ache. 10 seconds have
passed. No effect yet. I assure myself that in another 10 seconds its effects
will be visible; but all in vain. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, I hear some
bells ringing. They compound my head–ache. Annoyed, I peep through the curtains
of my bedside window only to find a man, perhaps in his sixties, selling
balloons of various colors- blue, yellow, red, green, purple, white, orange, etc
- and significant three dimensional shapes. 8-10 kids probably of 5-6 years
surround him with happiness. Instantly I recall my almost forgotten fact – ‘balloons
always fascinate me’.
As a kid I would always
cherish playing with balloons. Any sort of them would make me happy. My grandfather
used to get them for me every alternate day or so. He perhaps knew about my
unconditional love for colorful balloons! Thinking of balloons takes me back to
my childhood memories. Adrenaline gushes through my blood and look I am there-
8 years old playing with my friends.
I remember we used to play a
lot. We had games with almost each and every letter of English alphabet. ‘Aao
milo sheelo shalo’, ‘antakshari’, ‘barf pani’, badminton, bingo, corner-corner,
chain-chain, carom, doctor-doctor, ‘ghar-ghar’, hide and seek, ‘imli’, ‘jab
Miss Mary’, ‘Khul ja sim sim’, ‘kho-kho’, ‘loha-lakkad’, ‘ludo’, ‘name place
animal thing’, ‘posam paa’, ‘pithu’, red letter, ‘raja mantri chor sipahi’,
snakes and ladders, ‘staapu’, ‘tip-tip-top’, ‘uunch-neech’, etc.
‘Snakes and ladders’ was one
of my favorites. I remember how I hated the snake at number 98. For 95% of the
times I played snakes and ladders, it took me back to number 2. Very bad snake!
And ‘name place animal thing’! I still can’t think of any animal with alphabet ‘X’!
I remember some 10-12 years ago TV serial ‘khul ja sim sim’ was a big hit. Such
was its craze that every kid in my colony had organized it at his/her place! Next,
we used to play chain-chain madly. Our chains would grow longer and longer till
it was no more possible for us to run. And ‘tip-tip-top’! I still do not know
where to find turquoise, magenta, and cyan. How can I forget carom? It was a
tough task making a cover for the queen. ‘Hide and seek’, ‘dog in the bone’ ‘corner-corner’,
‘red letter’, ‘posam paa’, etc were so much fun to play. I still remember the ‘posam
paa’ song. How can I fail to mention ‘antakshari’? We would sing for hours. ‘Ghar-ghar’
and ‘doctor-doctor’ played with my friends are still fresh in my memories.
It is five minutes since I had
Dispirin. The balloon man rings bells again and I am back in the present. Adrenaline
gush is at its peak. And my head-ache is over. I feel rejuvenated all together.
Such is the impact of childhood memories! Long live childhood!
