Bachpan revisited!!!
As i sit amid the high rise buildings@ bombay on my cosy falt @ 10th floor.I see a tiny-tot on the second floor of another high-rise 25 floor bldg.
I see him looking down and wondering what's the world like ?
I seriously pity the childhood of Gen-Z children.
As far as i remember my childhood was full of 'real events'.
The TV exposure was limited to Ramayna,Mahabharat and ofcourse Heman.
Days were uncomplicated and soul was uncluttered.
I have spent about 12 years of my childhood from 5-17 in a joint family.
And it was helluva fun....
I still vividly remember me and my cousins used to get up at 5 am for Prabhatferi,
so that we can eat awesome punjabi moong ka halwa.One more privilege to be the only Brahmin
family in otherise punjabi mohalla!
My mom and dad never forced me to study.It was something which came naturally to me.
I was no bookworm..may be used to study 1-2 hrs a day!
Anyways back to the PrabhatFeri, I made lot of friends during those ferries and i used
to feel very good.We used to go to the mountaion after the prabhtferi,for a brisk walk.
Then all of us,after eating our breakfast in supervision of grandma(mind u it was not on
table and chair, we used to sit on floor or on jute mats!),we used to go to Grandpa's sweets shop.
My grandpa was a honest and hardworking man.Quite an enterpreneur himself,he came
from village empty handed and managed to have a bustling sweet shop with 4-5 properties
spread all over jhansi.He used to give all of us one rupee each everyday and we used to
look forward towards our pocket money greedily !
After eating hot,tounge-burning gulabjamuns from the kadhai itself(oh! gulabjamuns from
kadhai are like from heaven),we used to head off to cricket fields.Having 5 brothers
automatically made us a team with the eldest one being captain.He had lot of contacts all
over jhansi.So after playing numerous matches(ofcourse bets were placed on matches!).
We generally used to have abt 20 rs as net profit.
So then we used to come home have dinner and bath and then we used to bring abt 40 comics
(yes 40 comics!!) on rent.(25 paise/comics).Afternoon 12-3 used to be spent on comics(and
that explains why i believe to have good hindi skills!).We used to play cricket in hatha(an enclosure) or
pebbles(we call them unties or kaanch ki goli) with various variants like nakki-dua,tonti,gola(ofcourse all
were gambles!).Later on we used to play cards..especially flash(a version of poker), and ofcourse it involved money!
We used to play it in empty houses,schools,mountains etc etc...as gambling was prohibited at home,
especially for kids.What a thrill,we used to experience as kids!!
Then evenings were like happy moments straight from heaven.We all used to fly kites(sometime my father
used to join us in flying the kites!).The thrill of numerous penches and the uncertainities of the fate of
a kite in sky were enough to keep my aderanline pumping throughout the evening!We used to have
all kind of kites bharra(the one which makes sound when u pull the thread quickly for shot duration of time),
dagga(a big kite),punchlla(the one having a tail).We used to loot kites as well!
I think the fear and greed specially played a part in enjoying the activities.
In the night we all used to sit with mohalla guys and our eldest brother used to give us 'gyan'.
He used to tell jokes in such a fashion that even raju srivastav wil go to tatters in shame !
So that was how my usual day was spent at jhansi.
I have another set of fond memoirs of my childhood time at my naniji's place,a village
near kanpur called 'kotra'.And then we will move on to my teenage life.
I will tell u abt that in next post !!
bbye
posted by maxi @ 7:39 PM
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