Things you thought you were done with

Today our pastimes don’t include watching cartoons on TV, playing with neighborhood kids or playing flash cards with your sibling. These seem like a light year away. But when all of us are spending time in coffee shops or virtual hang outs or playing fruit ninja and angry birds on our smartphones, let’s take some time to relive the joys of being carefree. Of being a child.

          Do we still remember watching Pokémon on cartoon network at 8.30 every morning, and buying countless packets of Cheetos just to retrieve the tazos from inside them? Those glow-in-the-dark tattoo stickers that came along with your bubblegum? Scuttling to find unread copies of Famous Five or Secret Seven or Mallory Towers or The Babysitter’s Club during library period in school? Those were the days when, after homework, the evenings were spent with the neighborhood kids, playing self-made versions of games...land or water, red letter, asking “crocodile crocodile which color do you want?” and then shrieking when you couldn't find the color!

      The golden days when we frequented the local fair and had a go at everything from ring throw to dashing cars to the giant ferry wheel to buying spindly colorful balloons and promptly losing them on the way home! When parks did not mean canoodling couples but meant playing ball and spinning on the merry-go-around till you collapsed on the grass, dizzy and giggling. When the world cup could mean either cricket or Quidditch. When walks with your friends sucking on Pepsi colas of different flavors or cycling was ‘hanging out’, and not only drives, movies and trips to malls.

            When Friendship Day loomed and all of a sudden your hand was too short and bands piled their way to your elbow…birthdays meant chocolates in school and inviting your friends home in the evening…When we sat in front of laptops or PCs not facebooking or surfing the net, but playing Tetris, Aladdin or Prince. When family get-togethers were anticipated also for games of monopoly and cards.

        When summer vacations meant swimming, badminton, cycle races and eating aamras till you gained 5 kgs, and wasn't a prep leave for the upcoming examination or a lull before the next assignment. When you didn't feel stupid licking away at large colorful candy and thought exploding pops on your tongue were awesome!

            God I miss those days. I miss the lack of worries. But above all, I miss the quality we all had in us back then-we didn't care if we looked or seemed stupid. Everybody was the same. The cool kids, the nerds. In fact, there wasn't anything like being nerdy. How much could a 3rd grader study, after all!!! Groupism, politics, being diplomatic was unheard of. We were what we were.

         Maybe we can’t (and shouldn't  resort to pasting fake tattoos and buying cotton candy all the time. But we sure as hell can take a leaf out of the pages of the ‘childhood us’ to be more spontaneous, genuine and carefree. Try to look through the rosy tinted glasses of a child. If we do that, contentment isn't that far.