I have so much free time these days
that I let my mind wander through its labyrinth of memories and I pen down some
of those experiences here. My memories are quite hazy for all these happened
nearly four decades back and each day I try to go back in times of sands and
relive my childhood days. Forgive me for the gaps in the post since I have just
broached on few incidents of my childhood which are not connected
“Sunday means I have to be careful”
Between the years 1967 and 1969 I have
had numerous falls and accidents while playing and most of them have taken
place on a Sunday. Those days at Bangalore the doctors and the clinics would be
closed on a Sunday thereby I had to withstand the pain or discomfort till the
next day’s visit to the doctor. I have had dog biting me, cut opening my scalp
after a fall from slide in the part and lots of bruises and cuts on a Sunday.
One of the major fall I had caused a compound fracture in my left arm and I
still recollect that moment even today when my mother ran here and there to so
many doctors houses requesting for a first aid towing a wailing me along. We
were fortunate to find one orthopedic doctor in the locality and she took me
there. The doctor straightened the arm by cracking the bone in two places and
used two wooden rulers (scales) as splint and put a temporary cotton bandage
and asked us to come to the hospital the next day morning for taking x-ray and
plaster cast. The whole night I was in intense pain and I did not allow my
parents to sleep at all. Next day morning at Victoria Hospital the bones were
reset properly under anesthesia and the arm was cast in plaster of Paris….for a
period of 3 months. This was the final straw in the patience of my parent and
every Sunday was a taboo and I was subject to lots of restrictions that
particular day for nearly 2 years after the incident.
“Cemetery trips for hunting birds”
Being a Brahmin it is taboo to enter a
burial ground and yet I used to go with my friends almost twice or thrice a
week into huge wooded cemetery adjacent to our house to hunt birds using catapult.
For those of you who are not familiar with the catapult, it’s a hand held
weapon and it has a V or Y handle with rubber slings and a patch of leather for
holding the pebble or stone. The stone held in the patch is drawn back thereby stretching
the rubber sling and when released the stone would travel quite fast to its
target. I was pretty good with the catapult and during the hunts we would
surely fell down at least two pigeons which would be taken by my accompanying
friends for their dinner since I never used to have non veg food. There are
times that my mom used to find about these trips and I would be forced to have
a bath to cleanse myself. I had never been frightened by the ghost stories told
by so many of my friends when they learn of my visits to the cemetery.
“My first love …an one sided one “
A Quote which is quite apt to the
experience comes to my mind and it is “First
love is only a little foolishness and lots of curiosity”…
Seems like u were a very naughty kid!! Apparently I was one too..hehe :)
ReplyDeleteHahaha.. apparently yeah very naughty and mischievous too!!!
ReplyDelete