Remembering Childhood

Childhood! Those blissful, carefree days when the biggest worry was tackling a nasty teacher in school and devicing ways on how to avoid her, how much extra playtime we can squeeze in after piano lessons and tuitions. Then there was the joy of monsoons.

The first rains! That still puts a smile on my face. I rush to the window, stick my head out and breathe in the scents of the freshly washed earth.

As a child, I would rush out of the house to touch the rain. My friends and I would wait anxiously for our favourite ponds to fill up while we made sail-boats from thermocol pieces, and bits of wood we would find lying around in our houses. Those were more fun to sail than our fancy toy boats.

We'd put on gumboots, and raincoats and go splashing in the puddles. A week into the monsoons and our favourite ponds would be full. The deepest pond was two and a half feet. That was quite deep for a six year old.

Equipped with rain-wear and sail-boats, we'd meet at the pond. We would wade in fearlessly just to sail our home-made boats and splash each other with water, not bothered in the least about the water snakes that swam around. Oh the epitome of innocence and fearlessness of childhood.