Reminiscing my Childhood.

Hello friends, if we search for something to smile about amidst the present circumstances, the most assured way would be a travel back to one’s carefree childhood. It’s the most cherished phase of the life, won’t you agree? It’s the golden time when any kind of wordly concern or anxieties fail to sway us. The bubble of excitement and boundless energy were the constant companions in whatever we did during the day and a blissful sleep at night never hindered by any worry.

It was our good fortune that I spent my childhood in the pristine lap of nature. My father worked in Coal India Limited as a survey officer and at that time was posted in a small coalliery in Jharkhand. It was a beautiful staff colony, situated just beside a hilly river and small hills adorning the other side. The families living there were very closely knit. All the elders used to converge in the evenings and indulged in varied kind of conversations, the topics might be ghosts, divinity, thief catching or any general or current affairs discussion ( in Bangla it’s called adda). We children would take great delight hearing those interesting stories. Any kind of gentle chiding or a rebuke from them would make us leave the place but invariably find ourselves tiptoeing our way back, when their attention was riveted on an interesting point of the life experience as told by any uncle or aunt. I must add that these were the times before the advent of television culture and binge watching.

As a ten or eleven year kid, I was an outdoor person and fond of playing all kind of indigenous games like ‘gilli danda’, kanches( a game played with small colourful glass balls, the more you win them, the more richer one felt), kho- kho, luka – chupi(hide and seek) and the like. But my most favorite outdoor activity was climbing the guava trees and plucking the most precariously hanging fruit of my choice. At that time guava trees were most common in people’s courtyards. The knowledge of taste, texture and number of the fruits of each tree in the vicinity was in my fingertips. I can’t tell how much vitamin C and other nutrients we used to derive naturally from them. Think about our immunity, that we never bothered with washing the fruits before eating. It always went directly, right from the tree to our stomachs.

The best guavas voted by the children gang of which I was the unannointed leader, was the tree belonging to the courtyard of our next door neighbor. But just like the giant of Oscar Wilde, he was a large man and vehemently objected to our plucking them all by ourselves. He would say, “let all the fruit ripe then I will distribute it myself among you.” The fruits hanging in the tree were so enticing that we would find one way or the other to lay our hands on them. His tiny wife acted like a guard in absence of him, but dodging her was far more easier for us.

Once, we all were waiting impatiently for her to go out along with other ladies. She was out no more than five minutes that our army attacked the tree, fruits were quickly plucked and we let them fall to the ground. The booty to be collected later on and to be savoured in leisure! Our blood almost ran cold when we suddenly heard the sound of opening of her backdoor. Sensing danger we hastily climbed down and hid ourselves wherever we could. She might have had the inkling about our plan and promptly decided to return back to check on us! Think about that!! She was scolding us on top of her voice against the unseen culprits and the evidence of our crime was lying strewn around in the form of ready to eat ripe guavas. We, at any cost, wanted the fruits back.

Now it was the question of who was gonna bell the cat! Suddenly a plan struck my mind when my eyes fell on my youngest maternal uncle who was visiting us at that time and was no more ten years senior to me. I started pleading with him to collect the guavas for us. Initially he hesitated to venture out on the firing line but our power of persuation won him over and reluctantly agreed. With a feigned nonchalance he went out and began collecting the fruits. As she was expecting one of us she abruptly heightened her volume but the next moment her face was red with embarrassment as she found herself shouting on a dear guest of the colony. Thus she left the battlefield and silently went inside her house closing the back door. We emerged victorious eventually!

Hope you liked going through my life story. Do tell me in the omment box. Stay safe, healthy and happy.

Adieu for now

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