DO YOU RECALL...

Author unknown. Forwarded to A.I.I.T.
by Brian John, Perth, Australia

I'm talking about…

• Hide and seek in the house, playing dress-ups, and Cowboys and Indians with our wooden guns that we pestered the local carpenter to make for us;

• The corner street vendor selling those chikkies, channa, phallies and coconut sweets as well as kulfi malai, green mangos (kairis) and (guavas (jaams) laced with lashings of salt and chill powder; curan wallas, the bhajji wallas selling their fried delicacies of aloo bhondas and potato bhajjis and chillies fried in besan batter, all of which we were forbidden to eat due to the flies swarming all over them; The Taj Ice Cream wallah with his 'ice-froot' which we ate on the sly, at the risk of getting cholera or typhoid;

• Cricket in front of the old mango tree with wickets drawn on its trunk. Playing marbles, gilli danda and tops. Flying kites come the 14th of January, the maanja, the cut fingers and the looting of "cut" kites; playing kusti and kabadi in the dust and mud and coming home with our school uniforms caked with dirt;

• With the arrival of the monsoon, floating paper boats and leaves and watching them run down into the drain;

• A million mozzie bites once the monsoon hit, and the threat of Malaria with no repellents available in those days;

• Making our own "catties" (slingshots) with V's cut from the Guava tree and shooting at birds - and mangoes in season;

• The smell of spring in March with sickly sweet mango flowers and frangipani starting to bloom;

• Hiding indoors during Holi and not being involved in the colour throwing for fear of ruining our clothes;

• Raiding the jamoon tree and getting our mouths purple;

• When 12 paise (2 annas) would buy a decent ice cream block or a stick of bubble gum with bird pictures on the wrapper that we collected and pasted into an album we ordered from Bombay;

• Entertainment of a Saturday matinee at the local cinema seeing John Wayne, Dean Martin and Rick Nelson in Rio Bravo, paying the cheapest fare of 70 paise to sit up front and spend 30 paise on monkey nuts in the interval;

• Falling out over trivial things like cheating at marbles and refusing to be 'out' in cricket. Playing till we were tired from playing….remember that??? And refusing to go in for our bath thus delaying the ayah from going home;

• Remember when flattening cigarette packets in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle;Eating pickle and bread;

• Wearing our Bata 'keds' (tennis shoes) on school sports day and making sure they were 'blancoed' until they were white;

• Knowing everyone in your street as did your parents;

• It wasn't odd to have two or three 'best' friends;

• You didn't sleep a wink on Christmas Eve and when old enough, attended the Midnight Service. Christmas day was special; a day, and only day (except birthdays) when you received gifts;
• 
• Visiting our aunts and uncles for home made Christmas cake and mulberry wine, guava cheese, kul-kuls, rosa cookies and other delicacies;

• Spending a day out hunting duck with dad out in the districts and bring home a bag of pintail and teal;

• Nobody owned a pure-bred dog or cat; strays were welcomed in, fed and looked after like long lost family. They ate scraps from the kitchen table; no Pal or Whiskas for them;

• When pocket money was not heard of;

• When nearly everyone's mum was at home when the kids got back from school;

• When we all dressed up for church. No jeans thank you! Impressing the girls was the "in" thing!

• When any parent could discipline any kid, or feed her or use him to carry groceries and nobody, not even the kid thought a thing of it;

• When we called all our friends' parents "aunty" or "uncle" and respected their decisions whatever they might be, taking them to be the best for us;

• When being sent to the principal's office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited a misbehaving student at home, and if your parent was the Headmistress (like mine!) knowing you'd get a double dose of her wrath;

• When decisions were made by going "eeny-meeny-miney-mo" or "aada, paratha, khon paada!!!";

• Having a weapon in school meant being caught with a "catty" slingshot;

• The fun of a long train ride to another city with coke (coal dust) getting in your eyes and hair after being told not to stand by the door.

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