my childhood memories

Childhood memories seem to be the best part of life, especially when you are a grown up man but crave every moment to re live those golden childhood days. And when you are at home, suddenly all of them keep coming back to you one by one. When I think about them, I get such random pictures, like our green colour landline phone, today who uses a normal bsnl landline phone without a caller id. When I think of it, I realise why it is such a distinct memory. I have built beautiful relationships with so many people- friends, cousins, relatives over the years talking on that phone.

When I was packing up my stuff while coming back from Hyderabad this time, I came across a decade old letter which I had written to one of my school friends. It read somewhat like this:

Dear friend,

                How are you? I am fine. I got 90% this time. How much did you get? I am enjoying the holidays, also missing school. What are you doing in these holidays? Why did not you write to me? .. and so on.

I went through it again and again till I hadn't got enough of it and couldn’t stop laughing there after. After reading that letter I recalled that we were a gang of four friends who used to exchange letters every summer to keep in touch. I cannot recollect how it all started but I am glad it did. This piece of paper keeps reminding me of those friends and though I am not in touch with them now, I still feel close to them. I guess this is how at each stage life keeps on storing some memories for us here and there which become important only when we have completely moved on to the next stage.

I am glad facebook has made the world so small, that everything now is just a search away. Recently one of my friends posted a childhood photo of her playing in a swing in front of her house. When we were kids, we have played on that swing day and night like crazy and it was so nostalgic recollecting those days. Their family was very close to ours and had later shifted to some other place. It was awesome fun when they used to come to meet us but the only part I remember now is that when they used to leave, every time, I used to cry like the entire universe was coming to an end! All our neighbours used to make fun of me the next day. I have so many bigger concerns and issues to think about now and drop a tear but those tears still seem precious to me for the sole reason that those days might never come back again!

I was kind of a studious kid in my childhood (some would say even now!). Being sincere, I was never scolded while studying or doing homework but some how I still remember crying. When I asked my mom she told me I had this insatiable urge to get everything correct the first time. And she particularly recollects that I used to cry a lot while writing the letter ‘S’ as I could never get it correct. I can completely understand, for an analytical mind like mine, the artistic ‘S’ must have been more difficult than other letters. Today, while I was helping my mom get a hand on the computer, I got a little irritated by her continuous questioning and just when I was about to give up my dad told me, “Child, this is exactly how we taught you to write ‘S’. Look at yourself now. Do you think we gave up on you.” For a moment I felt ashamed but it was an awakening call. Life does come about as a complete cycle.


(dedicated to all my friends who have made my childhood memories special..)