Memories do not delete
I remember as a kid, climbing on top of the playground equipment, onto the roof of the slide, something I wouldn't do now - too dangerous! I remember telling my mum I hadn't done my homework and that I would do it the next day, and her face lighting up with joy as she picked me up and spun me around, when I told her that I HAD actually done it, and was just kidding.
Races with my cousins to see who could finish their milk first, or change into pajamas first. Telling everyone that I was a fairy, and pulling my best friend's hair when she told everyone that I wasn't - sorry Neha! Laughing with delight when I sang at my first recording studio, to go on the radio. Waking up super early in the morning, and going into the lift with my cousins, pressing all the buttons and talking, then racing to the playground, happy that it was so early and we had a whole day to play.
That was all at my place, when my cousins visited, because they all lived in different states. I remember it was basically a place with a lot of apartments. Each apartment was named after a flower. I think we lived in Marigold. For each group of buildings, there was one playground. Each playground was different, so sometimes we ran up the path to the next one, bringing along other friends. All the buildings were in one huge area, all connected by a road.
There were, as I mentioned, playgrounds for a certain number of buildings. There were also two basketball areas in the whole place.
Oh, that place... Most of my memories lie there. I remember attempting to play badminton with my parents, sister and friends, in front of the parking lot, running away when a car came up. I remember running up the stairs and from the elevator my best friend, Neha's place in the apartment. Each place to stay in, in the apartment had three rooms and two bathrooms. Big place. I remember playing with Neha's baby brother. Another memory comes to mind - Bursting with glee when I put on my mum's shirt, and made it into a dress for me, and my mum said that I am creative. I was so proud of that, and remember going around for years after that, telling everyone how creative I was.
Here come's the coolest part. There were two clubs in that whole place. In each club there was a mini supermarket, a study room, a performance area with a stage, two pools behind the club, a huge empty room where ceremonies were held, and an upstairs, where I wasn't allowed. I do remember my mother going up there weekly for Mother meetings. I also remember going to an apartment somewhere in the area, where I would have art classes, taught by one of the residents, and our parents friend.
I also remember that in that pool, I would NEVER feel cold. Others did, but for some reason I didn't. I was proud of that, I said I don't ever feel the cold. I also remember trying to get my little sister into the water by tricking her to the edge of the pool and then pulling her in, like, come her, I have something to show you, or give me that, or at least dip your leg in. She would shiver, and cling to me or my dad, and then plead for us to take her back out, she hated it. Now she likes swimming quite a bit.
I had three other friends there. Someone called Ryan, who I don't remember much about, older than me, and the two brothers, Viloke and I think, Vhibo or something. They were super awesome at chess, and recently I heard from them - they're international superstars at chess! I was like... I knew these two back when they were idiots! :) They would always beat me heh. The little one, Viloke, is actually pretty much better than his brother Vibho. My little sister had a crush on Viloke. Back then she said she wanted to marry him... LMHO. Aaah, baby love. 😄 They were forever stirring up trouble, but then, that's never been a surprise. The eldest, Vhibo, was a few years younger than me, so he should be about 11 or so, give or take half a year or slightly more. We would also play hide and seek a lot at their house, for play the keyboard.
We would also go to keyboard class, my sister and I. I was pretty good, even if I say so myself.
I remember we would have a lot of ceremonies on the basketball court every year, at festival and celebration times in the year, which were fun. There was also bingo held here, which I am slightly embarrassed to say I participated in a few times. It was fun.
I remember one of my birthday's, I got five things that I remember well. My very first Lego set, which I loved, a really cool kid chair which eventually, years later, my parents gave to someone, an awesome pillow, an adorable dress and shoes, one of those yellow hanging chairs which you hang up and babies sit on it (I later fell off that and hurt myself) and the best thing of all: a yellow blow up dog, bigger than a little girl, the kind that you punch and it leans back, but then pushes back up. I loved that.
Here's another flash, and I'm not quite sure where it belongs. Anyway. I remember us going to the movies. V-Max, I think? I'm not sure. Here's what I remember - our car parked in a car park. My dad had gone to get our tickets, and we would wait on the car, me, mum and my little sister. I remember we would always play the same track in this situation, especially one song, which I can't remember the name of, but I remember how it goes. Beside us there was a building with steps leading up to a door that kinda looked like the back door. I'm not sure if that part is right... I mean, the cinema is usually cleaner, bigger and newer than that, so it must have been a back staff door or something - or maybe that part is just in my head.
We also had a field property somewhere, that my dad bought, and plans are being made to soon rent it out or sell it, here in the present.
Visiting the orphanage down the road from the apartments every year on my birthday, so I could have my party there, and playing with the kids, providing food, AND handing out presents. Taking walks with my entire family at night, to the ice-cream cart at the end of the road. Heh. Orange flavour ice-cream every time...
I also remember we used to have rollerblading classes. Outside when it didn't rain, in which we would basically skate around this super long thing, and in the parking lot when it rained. I remember thinking I was the fastest girl in the world, and feeling proud because I had the skates with the 4 wheels.
My little sister would forever be putting utensils in and out, in and out of the drawers at home. She said she was cleaning them. Heh. She was also the finder in the family, finding anything and everything. Once, we were all looking for dad's wallet, and dad asked her. She said, "In the bag." So we were looking for 'The bag' for ages. We asked her again - she got up, and showed us. Adorable! Another time, my dad brought home baby chicks for us, and he put them on my head. I kept looking for them. I remember pictures of me walking around in nothing but my underwear and a singlet, drawing on the walls, painting my face. We still have pictures of my modeling half a watermelon on my head.
I also remember walking down the road that connected all the buildings together, with my best friend Neha, and our parents. We would walk down and I don't know... be driven to school? Take a bus? Hazy memories. Anyway, I THINK we were dropped by car, and our parents would alternate taking us - one day my parents, one day Neha's parents. I remember walking down, in school dress and school bag, and my mum pushing us back, telling us to wait for the car to pass before we crossed to the car-park or something. My little sister would only be 2, so she didn't go yet. She did start Pre-kindi, called PP1, when she was 3 though, and in that country they called Kindi PP2, then class 1, 2, and so on.
Everyday at school, looking at the menu eagerly to check the food and dessert we were about to get that day. You could bring your own food, but the school food was better. Or waiting for swimming day, where we would all jump into the tiny pool. Going to sleep in naptime, and when I was older, I would make little kids sleep.
Going to after school care - I remember catching the bus, getting off at a bus stop with my sister, and then the head of the center, Bhanu sir, would drive us to the center. At the center we had singing classes, art classes and naptime. It also had mini dinner time, free time and homework/drawing/reading time.
Some sweet, happy memories of that place are in flashes. I vaguely remember that there used to be an adorable baby there who I would play with all the time. She followed me everywhere. I then got a haircut in the holidays and she didn't recognize me anymore. I remember being upset at that - I tried to make her love me again, but it didn't work. She's probably all grown up now, at LEAST 7. Me saying "Ugh... I hate Brussels sprouts..." At snack time, when we sat around the table.
The bald art teacher squeezing my cheeks so much they hurt. :-) I didnt REALLY like him. Back then i thought he had a crush on me, ha! The singing teacher winking at me and whispering, as I was chosen yet again to demonstrate a song. Being taken to a recording studio to record some songs to be played on the radio - all organized by the daycare. Sticking a rubber to the bottom of a ruler and saying that I was magic, then making up a magic show with Neha.
Every year when I visited my cousins we had a play. There were five of us and we used to call ourselves 'The Fantastic Five'. The oldest of us would write the play, and we would help. We would assign roles and practice for days. We would then make tickets and sell them to all the adults and grandparents - there were a LOT, which means a LOT of CASH. That is still tradition every year. Another game we played in these times was taking toys and making Worlds from them - my idea. Like, mine would have a transporting portal, a tour bus, toy people, car washes, restaurants, the mayor's house, amusement parks, car rental places and more, all made out of little toys. We would make it on my cousins triple bed, or the floor. Each of us had a little toy to represent us, and we were the mayor of our world, which we would name. We would visit the worlds by "transporting" our us figures to each of the portals, and looking at them, going on tours. Yeah. Mine was always the best. Heh. We would then take pleasure in destroying each others worlds. This is all still done.
We would also play on our slip and slide, which my family gifted one of my cousins, and the tetherball, which I THINK we gave them. Can't be sure. Hiding and finding objects, playing squash, having picnics on ledges overlooking the parking-lots, going to the pool, pushing each other into the fountain, playing on our smartphones, playing Poptropica, and playing in the skate-park were also all favourites.
At this house, which was the house of one of my favourite cousins, and the coolest house, I remember sleeping with this cousin. He snored like a pig, and pulled all the blanket away from me, was a heavy sleeper, mumbled in his sleep and woke up late - and I love him. <3 I remember that he had those three TV series characters on his wall as a wallpaper... Their name escapes me now. I also remember that he had Ben Ten bedsheets and I remember I used to love them because back then Ben Ten was my hero... I even had a CRUSH on him! Eh. What did I know? I was a baby. But adorable.
We would also play Monopoly a LOT, eat and watch a lot of TV. I don't remember this, but the last to last time I went there to visit my cousin reminded me that he had once, telling me it was food, convinced me to take a bite out of a coaster, and I did. One bite. He showed me the bitten coaster to prove it. We played a little Pictionary too.
But when you're staying for weeks in the holidays, after a while you tend to need more than these things to keep occupied. As kids we did great with this. I remember, the last time I went there, 2013 June, we wondered WHAT in the WORLD we did as kids to keep occupied. Back then we didn't use Internet as much, and this doesn't just apply here, but everywhere. What did we DO to have fun. Because honestly, now all I know is screen. Hmm... What should I do today? Eat, sleep, play games on iPad, do homework on iPad, read stories online, read a book, clean my room, watch youtube videos, watch TV, write a story on Word, Play with an app, make something online, do my blog. Yeah. I'm working on easing myself out of it. :) Nevertheless, we always have fun, and I'm going back to visit soon, in December 2013, so I can't wait! I've missed everybody.
I remember going on the really cool trains in India when I visited, they were sleeping trains with three layers - a top layer, a bottom layer, and a middle layer that you could pull out at nighttime. I loved those trains. I remember my parents buying me Tinkle comic books to keep me interested, which I would read in the trains, so many of them. I still have them.
At my second youngest cousins house, we often went to the park. I don't remember much here, except playing games on the computer, watching videos on the computer, putting songs on the computer and dancing, and going to the park.
At my youngest cousins house, when he was a baby, I remember he used to pull my hair and was a little rude. I still loved him and used to talk and play with him a lot. The last time I visited him, he was older and could speak well, and told people downright what he thought of EVERYTHING. He was adorable, and super confident. You couldn't help but love him... He was so cheeky and never bored or scared. He even talked to strangers straight away, and they loved him too. You had to be there, but it was SO CUTE!
At my grandparents house, I would play Teacher Teacher - I was the teacher, the rest students. Each room was a different class. We would also go up on the awesome, super cool terrace and play. There was an old abandoned temple, and a a really cool playground with equipment, oval, cricket field and climbing trees across the road - some of our main hang outs! When we stayed a your grandparents house, a some other memories come to mind - playing OLD games on my iPod nano, everyone clustered around me to take turns on ONE game, playing under the Guava tree, hide and seek, meeting with the neighbors, making magazines from paper and pens, playing with creepy dolls - the only toys they had, besides cards, which we played a little.
Going on the bike, falling off the bike once and crying, going to the store on the motorcycle. At night, sleeping with my grandparents, one foot on each of them, when my parents went to another country and left me and my sister there - a lot of this happened then, though a lot was with my cousins, in the holiday when the entire family was there, EVERYONE. Going to my grandparents friends house to use the internet, because my grandparents didn't have any, so we could watch cartoons and e-mail my parents. Asking for sugar water, getting bathed by my grandmother on cold days, and best of all, the amusement park, where we would go on each ride a billion times, and then eat a packet picnic dinner in the garden of the amusement park. Fireworks outside at night, me singing and writing songs for everyone, praying together, falling asleep in my dad's arms as he sang me the song that ALWAYS makes me go to sleep, It was SUPER cool, and we went there all the time. We all loved it. We loved that house so much, it was SUPER big and really cool.
At my other grandparent's house, it was just my grandma - my other grandfather died just a year or so before I was born. I remember that place - one of my memories there, one that scared me, was when we were getting ready for a party, and I peeked at the back, the food makers that we had hired, they were talking, didn't notice me, one had pulled up his shirt and was rubbing his tummy with a knife. Don't ask - I don't even know.
There was a really cool park across the street, where I spent so much of my time. It had spinning doors that led into it, but I usually just went in by a step that I thought was really cool, or jumped over the wall. I remember leading my sister here many times. Oh, and I remember this one time, I saw a good behavior poster and was intent on being good. This included exercise early in the morning, in The park - my sister would come along too.
Being sent to the shops to fetch stuff, sitting in the huge taxi with strangers, walking up to the main road, making a friend there who I haven't ever seen since I played with her then a few times. I don't even remember her name. When I was little, people would forever be playing with me cause I was so cute. And I was the angel back then - my sister was QUITE the crier, biter and hair puller. Well. Haven't the tables turned now. :)
I also remember a cabinet full of dolls - my grandmother would never let me touch it as a child... I don't know why... There were also two tiny figures, toys, people toys, that I would play with. They were kept own top of the fridge. One of the rooms had a special feel to it... It was high and adventurous and had a picture of two characters from a Hindi movie. The backyard had a cat that was always wandering in from next door, and I used to sit on be wall a lot. The windows that opened into the backyard were tricky but I liked them. My grandmother was always giving me sweets that I loved. The front yard was filled with all sorts of plants, so many, and I loved to help water them. It was hard work, and after we were done we would pull out chairs and sit outside, watching the street, eating and talking.
I remember, the time my parents left me with my other grandparents, they took me on the LONG LONG LONG bus ride to my oldest cousins house for a while . At my oldest cousins house - learning about Justin Bieber for the first time, playing games on the epic computer, reading Marvel comics, trying to do the homework of someone who is about 6 years older than me (oldest cousin). Huge bathroom, watching TV, going up to the coolest double terrace in the world, sleeping there at night, making birds nest out of grass, getting lost, having a bath with the hose, learning to ride a bicycle. Flashes come back. Getting lost, going to the store with my oldest cousin and sister to get something for my cousins parents, and coming back with lollies as well, going to the milk guy to get milk, who loved me . And here is the fun part, though it may not sound that way at first.
I used to go to my cousins mums school, where she taught. I would learn as she taught two years above me, and do some of my own work in a Maths book my parents had told me to do, and everyone would pinch my cheeks . I went everywhere with her, and at lunch I ate with her in the staff room. I remember once I had the same question in my book as the one they were discussing and I took joy in telling her that. If I got bored, home was ten minutes walk away and I was picked up by my grandfather. They also had TV, and I remember watching movies with them, telling them not to skip anything, and fast forwarding literally everything when they watched a movie of their choice, because I didn't like it. I also remember watching news and ads there, and them telling me not to drink water until AFTER I finish my food. Going to the park across the street, it was SUCH a good park. Cricket and amazing equipment, a stage, huge slide... HEAVEN! Good times.
At my mums brothers house, I remember the ceiling being really high, because he had a huge house. He is in the army, and REALLY REALLY REALLY respected by people because of his generosity and high standing. He got divorced when I was little, and his little girl, Khushi, (meaning happiness in the Indian language Hindi) is about my age, but has a hole in her heart, which means mentally she's younger, and sometimes comes to see him - she's with her mum. Anyway, he is AWESOME.
My childhood was a happy one, and it held no worries or traces of sadness. Full of happiness, full of fun, these magical moments are what I hold close.
Aah, being a child. No worries, just bliss and games. I miss my childhood a lot, and I think about it a lot, wishing all the time I could relive it. I'm still a kid, but those were the days.
I wouldn't give up anything for these memories, not even cake. They are precious, and perfect, and mine. It's all I remember and more. Here's roughly every single happy childhood memory I had.
Children are the jewels of this world, and have so much to teach the people of this world. While people fight over nothing children let things go. Playful, adorable, friendly, smart and kind, children sure could teach adults a thing or two.
Always,
- A girl in this world
PS: Lols -
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3RIWEETGnc
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ywB6hfNZKm4
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uD7rUIXfncU
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1Rh6qbMb39o
