Childhood Dreams

To be a child again… what would I not give

Innocent and carefree

The world full of strange and exciting possibilities

Untainted, the mind – a blank slate

 

I see my son, all of 9 years old …. struggling to learn his lessons. He reminds me so much of my own childhood. Of course, he is a much better and faster learner than I ever was. But then, he lives in a world very different from the one I grew up in.

The sepia tinted memories of my own childhood come rushing back. Those days, Imphal was not the crowded, polluted shanty town it has become. Yes, it was a dusty shanty town even then, but it was not polluted or crowded like it is today.

My dad used to play Bridge with his friends at the Public Library most evenings. Sometimes, I would tag along and spend my time watching them play or just wandering around the building. On the way home, he would buy an ice-cream lolly for me from Lake View Restaurant which was located just across the road from the library. (That was the main reason why I would tag along in the first place).  

The roads have become very crowded nowadays. Traffic Jams (which were unheard of just a few years ago) are a common occurrence. Imphal has also become a much more dangerous place than it used to be for other reasons as well. There has been an increase in lawlessness over the years. Cases of kidnapping of children and adults, bomb blasts, etc are quite frequent these days. Because of the prevailing environment, sending children outside the home unescorted and alone is like taking a risk. When I was his age, I and my friends would go wherever we fancied, even kilometres away from home… to play cricket or to visit schoolmates’ homes.

The games that we played were usually outdoor ones like cricket, marbles, cheitek kotpi (gilli danda), kite flying, etc. I bought my son a PSP which he plays on when there is load shedding and he cannot use his PS2 or watch TV. He is familiar with computers and surfs channels on TV like a pro. Unfortunately, the only cricket he’s familiar with is the one he plays on his videogame console.