Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Early memories

*Trying to suckle mommy because I saw my neighbour of my age doing that to her mom. (Don’t remember the age but it was before school) I was a bottle-fed child cos mom couldn’t feed me after 3 months. I have an excuse why I am not tall.

*Sitting in the back door and cutting my own nails. Almost 8 of my fingers bled. Mom got royal blasting from dad and grand mom for leaving me alone. (Don’t know what they were doing.)

*Throwing biscuits to feed birds on a pomegranate tree. In our ancestral home, there was a pomegranate tree and birds used to sit and sing. They sounded ”biscuit peeyo” meaning give me biscuit. Took my share of the biscuits (we are 4 siblings you see. Therefore, ‘my share’ and ‘your share’ had a lot of meaning) and threw it on the tree to feed the birds. I had these small star-shaped biscuits again last May after all these years at a friend’s place.

*Picking up the phone and saying, ”who is speaking?” and “thank you” to everybody. Sometimes, to the operator. In those days, you couldn’t dial the phones.

*Age 2 (Delhi)- Smiling at a lady who did not turn out to be mom. I had been following her thinking she was mommy.

*Age 2 and a half (Assam): Crying because one of the Aunts addressed mom as big brother’s mom. I wanted her to address mommy as my mom.

*Not being able to write A The top never joined.

*Taking flowers from home for Miss (teacher) and seniors taking them away the moment I sit in the auto. Learnt to say ‘no’ a long time later.

*Big brothers sharing a raincoat and giving me one to myself as they walked me to my pick-up point.

* Insisting mom to give me only a boiled egg for lunch. Sat down to eat it. Somebody suddenly dashed and there, went my boiled egg. Learnt to carry proper lunch.

* Singing nursery rhymes climbing on the sofa with actions to all my dad’s unsuspecting colleagues. How much of a torture it must have been! I am sure only my parents loved to hear them. “Found the pea na, eat the pea na, yes na” (peanut, eat the peanut, just now!!!)

*Carrying a wooden ruler home. Wrote my name on it and lied that teacher gave it. Big brother complained to mom. I couldn’t have that beautiful wooden ruler but I learnt not to desire what was not mine.

*Kindergarten- Sitting alone, waiting for dad.
Dad told me he would pick me up as he came back from the airport. I couldn’t concentrate the whole day. Informed all my friends. Class ended by 2.30 for primary sections and the entire school by 3.00 pm. I waited at first with some friends. Little by little, all went. Dad finally came at 4.00 pm. I was so happy to see him but nobody to show off to.

36 comments:

Brajeshwar said...

If your emotional rhymes could be painted in paints, it would have spun the best masterpiece long back and in one of the best forms.

d4u said...

"*Age 2 (Delhi)- Smiling at a lady who did not turn out to be mom. I had been following her thinking she was mommy"...lol...so sweet:) Lovely early memories u have put forth...brought back the child in me too:)

Arun Gopalan said...

Change the title to 'Very' early memories :) :)

Arun

Stone said...

beautiful....

free_swinger said...

I had forgotten that I was ever that young... :-), thanx for letting me ponder over mine.

Ar Ar Ar Arrrrr said...

I was so happy to see him but nobody to show off to.
Heheeh....that was cute :)

Nice early memories there Arunima..

Swathi Sambhani aka Chimera said...

i have so many such memories, dunno if I wud be able to pen them,though.

shub said...

u remember all that stuff?! :O

quite a cute kid you were, it seems! :D so adorable!

sanguine said...

wow .. really lovely post this .awesome read.

i remember pinchin one of those scented foren rubbers from the fren's place n my mom sending me back to their house to return it AND she made me apologize for stealing. it was traumatic to say the least but i never stole after that ever.

Sid said...

i guess we all learn the hard way...cool entry...suprising you remember all that

Alapana said...

Memories:) They have their own flavour.

Anonymous said...

your memories and my memoried are opposite... I jumped thru moving rickshaw, drowned my self in water storage tank we had in back yard.. fell from brick wall that seperated us from our other neighbors.... but all in all it was fun..

Unknown said...

WOW Arunima! beautifully captured memories. Waiting for papa one was my favourite!

Great!

Rashmi.

Dreamcatcher said...

Nothing beats the sweet memories of childhood ...seems so much nicer in retrospect, back then it was as if those times had their fair share of ribulations.

free_swinger said...

The smell of crayons take me back to nursey :-)

Arunima said...

@dreamcatcher: you are very right. I did not have a nice time being reduced to a pin head by big brother for writing my name to someone else's ruler in front of mom. I am sure of that :-)

@pavi: thanks for the suggestion. I'll do that someday, I am just plain lazy with the click click click.

@ Shub: they are the things which I rememebr nicely. I have forgotten a lot too like say my books :-)

@ king kong: lol!!
I have broken my head twice. :-)

Sujay Sukumar said...

I remember wierd stuff about my childhood. You have such good memories. very cute!

Jackal said...

tht was cute n funnyy .....nice post..

Anonymous said...

hey thanks for visiting my blog. Sorry I can't recall really when you visited it earlier.

AmitL said...

Hi,Arunima,wow,that's the stuff memories are made of,indeed..amazing to see u remember age 2.Picking up the phone and saying 'who is speaking?' and 'thank you' was a cute one.:)But,tell me,do u also remember what happened a week back or a month back?I bet those memories are not as sharp as childhood memories.At least,that's so in my case...can't remember what I wore or ate yesterday.:)

that girl in pink said...

hmm...nice.
loved the raincoat sharing one for some reason.
felt nostaligic over the last one, same thing happened with me & my mom...

Arunima said...

@khotta: I have been reading you.

@AmitL: some childhood memories are really sharp. There are a lot of adult memories too but some are really insignificant

@that girl in pink: nice to have you here my lady. Clooney is mine by the way :-)

And yes, about the rain coat, my two big brothers were of the same height almost like twins and it was really cute to see them walking arm to arm inside one raincoat,the right hand of one and the left hand of the other popping out.

Anonymous said...

love you. Still remember you....

APUGONNAB said...

how do you remember stuff that happened soooo early in life? Phew..

Innocent & lovely read though..

Arunima said...

@Aparna: these are the incidents which shaped my life. The delhi incident when I was 2 for instance, I don't remember it very clearly. I just remember following a green saree lady and me smiling when she turned. I don't remember in which part of Delhi it was and mom had to fill up that part. I don't have any other memories of Delhi other than the fact that I was lost there. I have only the snaps.

I visited the city again as if for the first time.

Calvin said...

hey, fond memories :-)

Anonymous said...

hey i also got lost in a delhi market once. it was sarojini nagar i think.

i wasn't that young, must have been 6-7. Just followed a lady to the shop thinking its my mom. i started crying when i realised that she was not. but my parents were just behind me so they found me, phew!!!

after that my dad told me if ever i get lost in a market just go and stand near the car/scooter.

Invincible said...

i remember dropping a comment here. Did u moderate it out ?

Anonymous said...

Such a sweet feeling contemplating on our kiddoo years... :)

But what triggered these emotions now? :)

nishitaz said...

Memories always seem so pretty...sometimes even bad ones seem funny...i find that strange.
And hey i did visit your nishita's blog and she's very cute really.

Prat said...

"...pe na..yes pe.."
lol. so cute. you tell tales so wonderfully well.

Sin said...

Sigh! Those were the times! I realized after reading your post that somewhere down the lane, we lose that innocence. Life is never the same from that day forward!

Ar Ar Ar Arrrrr said...

Where art thou??
:(

Stone said...

New post wanted...Alive n kicking!

hope and love said...

hmmm many of the ur memmories struck a chord in me too..

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