These thoughts have persisted in my mind over the years. It's better to assemble them at one place for future reference. Here it goes , some thoughts , beliefs , memories from past which leave me all smiles . Years considered for these are circa 1993-98 .
1: It was ritual to keep reminding dad to get new pair of slippers , shoes . Measurement of the foot size was handed over to dad using cotton thread. Sometimes the footwear had to be returned for not fitting perfectly. In hindsight these were cute and priceless moments for sure.
2: It was customary to check what dad got while returning home. Closely associated activity was to tell dad what to get while returning home. Mostly , eatables in form of fruits , sweets , toffee etc used to come. In due course i did develop special interest for Samosa . Even now , when i visit home, dad acknowledges my presence by affectionately bringing hot Samosa as evening snacks.
3: Visiting vegetable market with brother was enlightening activity. More often than not it was our habit to ask each vendor for the associated price of almost all vegetables on display. Even if buying was not on agenda , just knowing the price was all important. Brother used to buy from poorest and probably most marginalised ones sitting in corner or outer area of the market. Now i know it can be called equity in decision making and one should have sense of empathy to do that .Sadly , lack of empathy and equity are reality in everyday life.
4: Counting number of wagons in railway goods train was priority activity. Bragging about the longest goods train one had seen was some sort of prized experience. Deciphering the meaning of letters written on the wagons was another associated fun activity. Even reading all lines written on back side of trucks was hilarious for sure . To name a few , TATA , Fir milenge , Horn OK Please , Baba tera sahara , Awaz do and many more .
5. I still remember the curious expression of mother's face when i told her that we should give tip to the waiter in the restaurant we had visited. She quipped , " Is is mandatory? ". I had replied , " of course not" , as we moved out all smiles. Even now its difficult to explain to mom that people do spend thousands of rupees for one meal.
6: Among kids there was special fascination for content of movie posters. Reading anything and everything in the posters was done with utmost care. There was general consensus that the instances of hero falling in love with heroine was absolute non-sense. It was assumed to be a grave sin to even think about love and romantic things in real life. Thanks to movie fight sequences, we kids used to fight in slow motion with sound effects created from our mouth.
7: We kids used to feel bad for coming into world quite late. British had left long ago giving independence to India. Gandhiji was no more to lead the people of the country. We used to subscribe to the idea that Subhash Chandra Bose was alive and will return to India soon. India fighting war with Pakistan was only hope we thought we could use our life meaningfully for the country.
8: I do not from where it had started but all kids used to believe that Dev Anand was not permitted to wear black shirt. Reason circulated was , many girls had committed suicide on seeing him in black shirt. Exploits of Dara Singh and Kapil Dev used to be part of folklore as well.
9: Running after butterflies and dragon flies for hours was done with excessive dedication . Disturbing sister when she applied high degree of concentration to catch dragon fly added to unlimited fun and uncontrolled laughter..
10: My morning wake up signals used to come in terms of mom shouting incessantly proclaiming since how long sunshine is there and since when birds are chirping. She used to say only a "kumbhakaran" like person can sleep like this. This has not changed over the years. Somethings never change , undiluted love with same intensity.
I treasure these things and are so close to my heart. I have changed a lot over the years , the kid in me is alive and keeps reminding me the past that was there . It helps specially in difficult moments. Message is laud and clear , life is beautiful in simple things :)
1: It was ritual to keep reminding dad to get new pair of slippers , shoes . Measurement of the foot size was handed over to dad using cotton thread. Sometimes the footwear had to be returned for not fitting perfectly. In hindsight these were cute and priceless moments for sure.
2: It was customary to check what dad got while returning home. Closely associated activity was to tell dad what to get while returning home. Mostly , eatables in form of fruits , sweets , toffee etc used to come. In due course i did develop special interest for Samosa . Even now , when i visit home, dad acknowledges my presence by affectionately bringing hot Samosa as evening snacks.
3: Visiting vegetable market with brother was enlightening activity. More often than not it was our habit to ask each vendor for the associated price of almost all vegetables on display. Even if buying was not on agenda , just knowing the price was all important. Brother used to buy from poorest and probably most marginalised ones sitting in corner or outer area of the market. Now i know it can be called equity in decision making and one should have sense of empathy to do that .Sadly , lack of empathy and equity are reality in everyday life.
4: Counting number of wagons in railway goods train was priority activity. Bragging about the longest goods train one had seen was some sort of prized experience. Deciphering the meaning of letters written on the wagons was another associated fun activity. Even reading all lines written on back side of trucks was hilarious for sure . To name a few , TATA , Fir milenge , Horn OK Please , Baba tera sahara , Awaz do and many more .
5. I still remember the curious expression of mother's face when i told her that we should give tip to the waiter in the restaurant we had visited. She quipped , " Is is mandatory? ". I had replied , " of course not" , as we moved out all smiles. Even now its difficult to explain to mom that people do spend thousands of rupees for one meal.
6: Among kids there was special fascination for content of movie posters. Reading anything and everything in the posters was done with utmost care. There was general consensus that the instances of hero falling in love with heroine was absolute non-sense. It was assumed to be a grave sin to even think about love and romantic things in real life. Thanks to movie fight sequences, we kids used to fight in slow motion with sound effects created from our mouth.
7: We kids used to feel bad for coming into world quite late. British had left long ago giving independence to India. Gandhiji was no more to lead the people of the country. We used to subscribe to the idea that Subhash Chandra Bose was alive and will return to India soon. India fighting war with Pakistan was only hope we thought we could use our life meaningfully for the country.
8: I do not from where it had started but all kids used to believe that Dev Anand was not permitted to wear black shirt. Reason circulated was , many girls had committed suicide on seeing him in black shirt. Exploits of Dara Singh and Kapil Dev used to be part of folklore as well.
9: Running after butterflies and dragon flies for hours was done with excessive dedication . Disturbing sister when she applied high degree of concentration to catch dragon fly added to unlimited fun and uncontrolled laughter..
10: My morning wake up signals used to come in terms of mom shouting incessantly proclaiming since how long sunshine is there and since when birds are chirping. She used to say only a "kumbhakaran" like person can sleep like this. This has not changed over the years. Somethings never change , undiluted love with same intensity.
I treasure these things and are so close to my heart. I have changed a lot over the years , the kid in me is alive and keeps reminding me the past that was there . It helps specially in difficult moments. Message is laud and clear , life is beautiful in simple things :)
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