I was sitting with my friend, watching this movie BEAUTIFUL GIRLS on TV, when all of a sudden a question props up of nowhere, “What’s your oldest memory of childhood ?”, my friend asked me. And this question took me to some really old memories. Memories which i didn’t even know did exist. For a moment i just stared at the blank wall in front of me, but then i could see some visuals forming on the wall.
Ohh, the question. Coming back to it. As i searched for some clarity in those blurred visuals, i was surprised to find a lot of things. It was of a period , before i got admitted to DR. V.S.E.C., the school which became a family for me for 12 long years. Before i got admitted to this school, i basically had gone through 2 other small next-door schools. There was this one english medium school and another a hindi medium one, even before that. I think, one of them was called S.T.D. or something like that. It must have been the english medium school, and i distinctly remember a blue tie with that abbreviated school name on it, hanging down my neck. I think i even have a photograph of me wearing that stupid tie [ Mental note : Got to search for that photograph ].
Anywz, the period is almost a blur. But there are distinct events scattered here and there, which i still remember. For instance, i still remember that stupid stupid “jalebi” race that we had in one of those schools. We had to grab on to a hanging “jalebi” using only our mouths, and then rush back to the starting point. And i still remember, how i fell short of the hanging “jalebi”, and was almost jumping up and down with my tongue hanging out like a hungry dog, till some teacher had to lower down the “jalebi” (unfair it was, i know), so that i could finish the race. And i also remember that, somehow there wasn’t any “jalebi” with me when i reached the starting point.
Then, i still remember the only neighborhood friend i had in those days. Its a pity that i don’t even know, where he is at this moment, or where he was just an year after we left the neighborhood. But i still remember the courtyard in his house, where we played cricket. I still remember his grandfather who lived in a garden by the courtyard. It was a big house, and we spent a lot of time there, destroying the garden and the house too.
I still remember , how that mad cow once chased me in the locality. I hid behind a pile of bricks, which came tumbling down on my foot, as the cow rammed its horns into it. I think i was on my way to school then, with my mother. Don’t remember if i took a leave or not for the day. But i remember, i got hurt.
I still remember the “bhabhi-ji” below my house , who used to teach me some subject i don’t remember. Mom says, it was she who saw some invisible spark in me, and insisited on getting me admitted to some better and costlier school, much to dad’s annoyance and mom’s satisfaction.
There are many such memories , of that time period, all of which is a complete blur of good and bad memories. I remember a lot of them, to my own surprise, and i came to know this only today. Its a good thing to relive those moments once in a while, if only in your thoughts.
So, these are my oldest memories. There are several other, and though the ones i have mentioned are very inconsequential ones, yet they somehow make my childhood or perhaps my pre-childhood phase, worthwhile…at least for me.
So, look down your memory lane, dig out some old memories, and tell me, WHAT EXACTLY IS YOUR OLDEST MEMORY OF CHILDHOOD?
THE MIRROR 99 