Reliving Childhood !!

I was on my way back home from my Daughter's Preschool, when I noticed a group of children sitting out in their yard in a circular fashion, under the warm sun, playing something that looked like passing on the message. What I was reminded of.. was my own time with cousins and friends at Nani's place, the summer vacations.!

Brilliant mornings, waking up later than eight for a while, troubles with milk..chores of the mothers in getting us ready, cooking-cleaning-washing and what not, fathers at breakfast table ready to leave for work.. and us, well.. just waiting for them to leave so that we can decide the plan of action for yet another fun-filled day. Horking down the breakfast, gulping down the milk, futile attempts to like it with flavors of chocolate, strawberry..sometimes even tea !! But the battle was always won, sometimes by mothers, sometimes by us :)

The gang of eight in a big house, believe it or not, started our day with a notepad and list of games. There was always a leader , some followers, some premature, some neutrals and a rebel ! But we all fit exactly right in all games and activities we did through a day. The first three hours before lunch were pretend-play of Doctors and Teachers fondly terming doctor-doctor and teacher-teacher. A little smart act of Nani by suggesting us to do our holiday homework while playing pretend-Teacher. The wisest of us got to be the teacher and the rebel would suck the life out of her by being the worst student.. the teacher finally giving up her job and taking up a new role of the monitor of the class.. :) But the role-reversal you see, makes the masses haphazardous..lots of questions, 10 math problems, but no answers.. so as expected the rebel quits and is happy being the monitor and the teacher is back again with full control and restoring order..!! I recall and imagine, relive and replay.. what fun it was!

The lunch was a tug-of-war too. Eating with favorite cousin, most popular friend which were actually favorite for more than one of us! All one could hear was "I dont want Daal or salad", " only one roti and no rice, mom". Securing the best ripe mango even before starting to have lunch was real fun ! The second three hours from 2 to 5 were outdoors in sun, playing catch, kho-kho, races, cycling.. did we ever sleep ?? No we didn't.. we just pretended :) 

Moms tucking us in for quick 2 hours nap, and all of us quietly moving into the living room, one by one to try out our already planned dramatics. Picking up a random movie illustration, sometimes comedy sometimes horror.. I remember, there were large Antelope-head wall pieces in our living room, they were real-life size and had big horns .. and once we drew the curtains of that huge room, it became really scary in there. The effect of our dramatics was exponential because we could see those heads in dim light, and dust particles in air added to the remoteness..! There were screams by youngsters, shouts and laughter by boys, giggles and hushes.. so that the moms don't wake up and we played on and on. Fights on who gets to play the lead and who gets to be the wretched ill-faced ghost. The evening was delicious with Nana getting fresh jalebi and samosas, I always saved some jalebi for soaking in milk to have it the next day !! yumm..

An evening stroll to the chaat-stand, a plan to see the famous U.P "Numaish" and teasing each other on getting on to scary rides. Dinner while watching TV, fighting yet again. Boy, it was funny and ridiculous at the same time.. Setting up sleeping space in living room, on the ground, displaying on paper "only kids allowed" , chatting and talking till midnight, pulling legs of the most innocent ones, telling "the right thing to do" to the miscreant, enacting our funny school teachers .. all getting up for a midnight snack, giggles and hushes in the kitchen all the time!! 

If I try to quantify, we had much more fun all day than the kids of this age. May be their definition of having fun has changed now.The simple playtime has become occasions of classy pre-planned play-dates, the notepads and holiday homework replaced by i-pads, singing, orating or reciting is replaced by phone and pods, the quality of playtime has improved, evolved and has become smarter, average intelligence has increased at a very young age, street smartness in the palm of a child's hand... but playing once in a while in sun like that, planning an eventful day with all sort of games is worth every minute. One can never recall an account of playtime this diversely if they were spending half their day on an e-device!!



Dedicated to my "Mad Family" !! I love you all guys! and I miss you too ..