Childhood

Childhood is perhaps the only time when we can do all that we want without ever being apologetic or embarrassed. It’s the most wonderful stage of our life, the only time we are naturally innocent and carefree. I cherish my childhood too, and here I am sharing some of my experiences with you.

This was when I was still a baby. My parents and I, as the little baby were sitting outside, around the bonfire munching peanuts. It was winter. The phone rang and amma went to attend the call. It was for appa, she called out for him. Now, comes the real part. I was there, sitting all by myself trying to grab a handful of peanuts. In the process, my woolen dress caught fire and I sat crying, my fist still full of peanuts. The woolen dress got completely burnt and it stuck to the tender baby skin. Thankfully, I did not suffer anything major but my skin got burnt and it was pretty painful for me, I am told.

The next time around, I had drunk eucalyptus oil. I was in high spirits the entire day and my two paatis(grandmas) couldn’t make out what was wrong with me. Only after I was back to my senses, that I told them that I had mistakenly drunk the oil.

Pati had her own tricks of scaring children and making them obey her. This was one of her evergreen ones and apparently, each and every child had got scared. Whenever she combed, she would collect the fallen hair which would be used for the trick. In a small piece of paper, she would place the hair and fold it, such that a little part of the hair is visible and it resembles the whiskers of a cockroach. Then, she would scare the children saying that there was a cockroach inside, and that if they didn’t listen to her, she would throw the cockroach on them.

She tried this trick on me too. I stood there staring and examining the piece of paper and the “cockroach” inside it, completely unmoved. Pati was proud of me because no other child had ever done that, and while I stood examining it, she couldn’t stop laughing that her trick had failed for the first time.

Another time, I had accompanied amma to her office during my summer vacations. Both my patis had gone down south, and so my parents would alternatively take me along to their workplaces. I would roam around the entire office building and most of the people knew me. I went to an aunty’s cabin and there a small porcelain statue of a dog caught my attention. I liked it so much that I just picked it up and took it with me and put it in amma’s handbag. That aunty did not notice that I had stolen the statue. On coming back home, I received a nice big scolding for having stolen it. I still have it, and every time I look at it, I am reminded of my wrongdoing.

When I was a little bigger, this incident took place and I am still shamed of it. One uncle used to visit us often, he was appa’s senior. He was an old man, a bachelor. He would come over for dinner sometimes. He would play cricket with me, I would throw the plastic ball and he would bat with a register. One day, I told him “I know why you visit us so frequently.”. He asked me why. And I told him “Because you get free dinner here”. I am so ashamed of myself. Uncle took it sportingly, but appa didn’t and shouldn’t have because it was a big mistake. That was one big lesson for me and he never visited us again.

This was when I was in fourth grade. I was part of the school choir, and we had to sing a song on Independence Day. We had been asked to wear a white salwar-kameez for the performance. I did not have one and so, we had to buy it. Some relatives had come over, and to show them how much I work and how responsible I am, I started ironing the brand new dress. Alright, I didn’t know how to iron clothes !! I started off pretty confidently, but by the end of it, I realized that I had burnt one of its sleeves. Scared, I comfortably hid the kameez. The day was approaching and I was scared to say the truth. Finally, I confessed to amma and we went looking for a similar cloth so we could replace the sleeves. We couldn’t find the same shade of white, and we settled for the closest one. I felt very odd because the sleeves really stood out in the daylight. My friends asked about it, and I kept saying that that was how it was made.

Childhood really teaches us lessons for life. Why is it that we lose our childhood somewhere? Why is it that we grow big only to become smaller?