Childhood days are great, full of fun, pleasure, care free attitude and free of all worries. I remember my early days at my father’s residence, where a railway line was passing nearby. Many times we used to stand near one side of the railway track, observe the train coming, passing and leaving in front of us. Once in a while we used to keep a small coin on one of the rails, which used to get flattened under the heavy pressure of the train. There was also a canal nearby, over which there was an enclosed railway bridge. We used to observe the trains passing through this bridge with curiosity. But on both sides of the bridge, there was some space available for people to cross the bridge on foot. I must have crossed this bridge with my father many times. We also enjoyed going across to various plantations in nearby areas. My mother was very careful about various aspects of her children. When one lady called me after distorting my name, she immediately cautioned her to call me using my name correctly. Sometimes after arriving from school my mother would send me to the market to get curd so that I could eat my food happily. During this period I have also faced medical problems of pimples on face, dental and eye problems, having had to put on spectacles at about 12 years of age. Once I was told by my guest relatives to keep a watch and to inform about expected arrival of a bus. When I told them after sometime that the bus is very shortly arriving, which I did exactly as per their request, I was accused that I wanted the guest relatives to go away from our house since I had informed them about the expected arrival of bus. At that time I did not realize the gravity of this accusation. During some of these days we have enjoyed things like, running from one roof to another, playing with animals, playing cricket & observing solar eclipse etc. At one time there were riots in the city and it was placed under curfew including our locality. We could not go out but we could peep outside and observe for a few days stoppage of all activities, total silence and gun toting soldiers. During my good old school days, Head-Master of my school took us on a picnic to a nearby lake during one rainy season. After reaching there, we roamed around the lake & visited the nearby areas, gardens & cottages etc. In one of the shelters the Head-Master and the teachers conducted various games, one of which was a memory game in which 12 objects (well known and in normal general use by the students) were shown to us for some seconds and then these were covered again. We were then asked to write the names of these 12 objects by memory on a separate sheet of paper individually. Later on amongst other games a contest was held to identify the boy who laughs the best. A team of 3 teachers was formed for this purpose. Efforts were made to stimulate the students of this class by creating such scenes so as to create laughter. I laughed to my heart’s content so much so that tears were coming out of my eyes. All the 3 teachers unanimously pointed towards me and identified as the best person in this Laughter Contest. But the Head-Master disallowed this selection & cancelled the event, saying that it is not possible to judge it satisfactorily and objectively. So as the luck would have it, I missed out getting prize for this event.
No comments:
Post a Comment