Part-4....that never returns....

                   

The schools were located two-three kilometres away from the residence. Children from the neighbourhood converged at a convenient point before setting out for the school. The onward and downward journey on our two-wheelers (two legs) was much more interesting than any other fun. The sceneries and greeneries on the way, the tales from the fellow trekkers, the petty eatables packed in paper bits, and the such smoothed our movement to school through stony roads. The children carried their books as bundles tied with a broad rubber band. The boys took the support of the shoulder whereas the girls that of the left loin, just like, village-women carry their kids on journeys. School bags with the children were rare rather seldom, unlike today when even the playschool-goers must exhibit a desert-camel-like show.  

Fairs and festivals were indeed marvellous, as they provided mind-blowing curiosity to both of them, the little ones and grownups. These fairs and festivals, the siblings, cousins, friends, the other kinfolks and neighbours celebrated in unison with good spirit. Pond dip, new apparel, palatable plantain-leaf-feast, and the like were some of the main features. The tang of the Payasam (a post-meal sweet-dessert) used to linger on the tongue of those participants, who had their festivity feast till the next meal. 

A warm feeling of love a bond bound the children during celebrations. Onam being a distinct fair was attributed to numerous activities for the kids and kiddies. Floral decorations added magnificence to the festival, Onam. Girls moved round in search of flowers in the village, swinging flower-baskets in their hands. The very thought of flower gathering filled them with rousing cheer to come out of the bed with a bright countenance, even if lazy they were for an early rise. The swing area was another point of charm.  The heroic events of standing and touching high branches of the swing-supporting bough, exhibited by some expert male ones, during swinging, were lucidly adventurous. The girls, shedding their fret, also tried their level best to relish various methods of swinging like standing, leaving one hand, sitting in double or triple numbers on the same swing etc. 

 Coming to the cultivation mission-sowing seeds, harvesting, bundling, arranging, threshing, winnowing, etc. of paddy crops enthused the children much. Songs and tunes hummed by reapers turned the atmosphere admirably lovely and lively. The little ones spent all their might on troubling the workers, as their little limbs fell in every work and everywhere they came across.

 Besides all these, sleeping together on mats, spread on the floor of the loggia, beside the inside-quadrangle and falling during sound slumber on its sandy ground had their significance in our babyhood. A community-lunch type of action took place during the meal sessions. Some clever guys snatched the fish piece kept for the end part of the meal by some of the children, literally threw the latter into wetting their eyes. The rebukes from elders brought smiles to the tearing eyes and settled the matter.

 Sure, the children at that time had a joyous multi-hued childhood of lengthy duration, whereas now the children of today have the adulthood of a stretched extent, right from their childhood itself. The parents stuff their brains with academics to fulfil their unfulfilled aspirations and ambitions. The heavy load of books and works weakens the brawns of children. They might be loading much of academics and allied activities in their memory;  therefore, I suspect whether they can recall this much amount of infancy with this much cheer and pleasure. ,

Anyway, sights and scenes as currents of incidents from my reminiscences flow to the computer's monitor, in the form of words and sentences. If I continue like this, the conclusion will be difficult because the then village-young-ones had copious opportunities for recreation with burdenless study lessons. We can tap letters and letters on the keyboard if we want filling pages and pages, about our young age days. Nevertheless, now I seek rowing to the closure-shore and conclude and so, 'goodbye' for the time being.

 May the Almighty be showering the flowers of His blessings on all the readers.                         

                                                                                          [The end]

Part-3...that never returns....

                                                 Google Image

                        

We, the infants toddled and prattled through the verandas and compounds, picking whatever came on the way, generating gleam in elders’ eyes. Childhood bagged special attention practically nil from the guardians since the children were not the kind of spoon-fed category. We availed of more freedom than today’s children, who are entangled in over-parental care. And so we could be much more independent and self-reliant.

 Mostly the children used to get up before the Sun came with his long sticks to wake them up. Divine qualities such as obedience, discipline, honesty, affection, etc tinted with sincerity and hard work ornamented the villagers and so also their children. Therefore a wind of unwritten law and order blew everywhere spreading the scent of simplicity.      

 Boys and girls though had their separate modes of amusements and recreations, not many games segregated them. Recreations through gaming were stealing the hearts of children and hence their life during vacations sought grounds outside their abode for sports. So hardly had we formed any group or team, for playing together was the pattern followed.

Olichukali(hide and seek), Adichechottam (beat and run), King(catching and ousting a child from that round of the game), Kuzhippara(stones and pits), Kallukothu(juggling-picking stones in the gap of another stone thrown up), Thakku(throwing dice to jump on that without touching the columns drawn) and many more were among the games.

 Vattu(Marbles), Kuttiyum- kolum(a primitive form of cricket), Kite-flying etc filled the little male minds with thrill abundant. Little magical hands of girls gave life to various things as toys and playthings. The raw materials like leaves, nut-shells, paper-bits, rope-pieces, cords, strings, even mud, etc. amazingly, got shaped into chains, snakes, balls, crowns, cross belts and the like. The blindfolding game was also much sportive. Balls-from the market as well as those made from the Coconut leaflets-had played a major role in games. Chasing butterflies, dragonflies, watching antlions and ants and their kineses and the such were some other kinder games. 

 We, the children were architects of the first order as we designed and constructed temples and buildings(both bungalows and huts). We used sodden soil, twigs, coconut- stalks, shells, leaflet-midribs, etc. for construction and also we ornated our real estates with multi-coloured blooms. Sometimes we turned to be expert chefs cooking food with soil, leaves and flowers. Coconut shells were the wares, we used in our play- kitchen.

 Dancing, singing, one-act plays also had engaged the little minds at times, no matter they were of the accepted pattern or not. Fights and quarrels(mostly verbal), inherent or in-built in children's nature, had no dearth there but lasted not so long. 

 Summer vacation, the Mango season, was indeed the most spirited time. The thought of waking up at daybreak and running to the mango trees to collect the maximum number of mangoes occupied the little minds while going to the bed, the previous night. Sporting in vacant harvested paddy fields energised us to a greater degree.

Summer rains sometimes bathed the Earth in heavy showers and rainwater blanketed the whole terrain to the fullest. We, the children either remained home idle or engaged ourselves in some indoor games or galloped to the flowing water with paper boats. But the thud of falling mangoes induced vigour in us and then within no time we were under the mango tree. Grandma’s winnowers became umbrellas in children’s hands when it rained. Sticks jumped into grandma’s right hand whenever she understood about the missing winnowers.  

                                                     

Every house had one or more ponds that invited the children to play with. Jumping, Diving, Swimming-direct, upside down, sideways, backwards etc. were some of the games designed for our hilarity in the pond. Sometimes some plantain stems appeared in water for paddling games. Counting with a little bit of cheating by one person for another remaining under the water was carried out smoothly. Of course, an ample amount of pulling and pushing were the spices that made the water art interesting. This fun went on endlessly till some elders voiced angrily and loudly. 

At the age of five itself, all the children were at the track of swimming and not even a single child was there without having had mastery over the skill of swimming. Bath towels will become fishing nets when two children hold the towel on either side and dip under a shoal of fingerlings to fish them. And eventually, snowy white bath towels would have been dyed in a brown or black hue in similitude with the mud colour of the pond. 

                                                                                                            [to be contd.]