8 things that made our childhood special

There’s no doubt that childhood is the best part of our life. Somewhere down the line, while growing up, we lose the innocence and the curiosity that were characteristic of those early years. Ironically, that is what we miss the most about our childhood – not having a care in the world – and school and homework being the worst of our troubles. Here are 8 things that made our childhood the awesome experience it was…

1. Friendship was just a matter of 'katti' and 'abba'

Childhood was the time when ‘bitch’ was a female dog and the worst gaalis we dared to give were "ullu" (Hindi slang for "idiot", literal:"owl") and "buddhu" (Hindi, literal:"stupid"). The kids who played with us were our friends, and the ones we spent the maximum time with, became our best friends. A simple ‘abba’ ( Hindi slang for "patch-up") mended broken friendships and ‘katti’ (Hindi slang for "break-up") was just a temporary phase of being a non-friend. And enemies? There was no such thing as an enemy then. Ah, what a blissful time it was.

2. The other gender was an alien species

Girls could never understand why guys had to indulge in such foolery and fights all the time, and boys never really understood the appeal Barbie and ‘kitchen sets’ held for the girls. For us, the other gender was an entirely different species, and the intricate working of their minds was best left unknown. However, growing up made us wiser, and we realized that they too were humans, with a regular and rational thought process as ours. Eureka!

3. Parents existed only to spoil our fun

As kids, we felt that the sole aim of our parents’ life was to disrupt our games, force us to eat/ sleep/ wake up/ go to school. This mind frame continued in our teen years, when it seemed as if our parents would never understand us. But later on in life, we get to know that everything they did was out of love and concern for us, and in our best interest. In fact, we realise, that all this time our parents understood us better than ourselves! Thank you, mom and dad.

4. Evenings meant play time, fun time!

Every evening, we drank our Bournvita and went out to play with friends. Hide and seek, piththoo, pakdam pakdai, stapu (hopscotch), vish-amrit, langdi tang, poshampa bhai poshampa, gallery… the list is endless. And what fun it used to be! Taking out our bicycles and cycling around in the society, ringing a neighbour’s doorbell to ask a nearby aunty for chilled water and then getting yelled at for returning late in the evening. Today’s kids don’t even know what adventures they are missing out on. I feel really sorry for them!

5. School + Homework = Punishment

School was purgatory for us. Sitting quietly on the bench in the class under the strict eyes of the teacher, when instead we could have been watching all the wonderful morning cartoons and playing out there in the park, seemed no less than a jail sentence for us tiny souls. Break-time and chhutti-time used to be the only best part of school. In senior classes, all these notions were lost, and by the time we passed class 12, school was the best and the most happening part of our life. Miss you, school :’)

6. Sadness meant bawling our hearts out

Emotions were simple and straightforward – someone gave you a toy? Feel on top of the world. Someone broke your toy? Cry to your heart’s content and just let it all out of your system. Your friend hit you in school? A simple complaint to your teacher and problem solved. Dad yelled at you? Mom always found a way to make you smile again. No confusion, no complications! Can’t really say the same after growing up now, can we?

7. Having elder siblings guaranteed an upper hand

The math was easy – the older your brother/ sister, the greater your privileges and advantages. If any of your senior friends bullied you, a simple threat using your elder sibling’s name was enough to send them scurrying away to find cover. Yes, the fights that you had with your siblings were cumbersome, and their existence was the source of all your troubles at home, but to the world, you were a team, a united front – not to be underestimated and not to be messed around with. *like a boss*

8. The world was black and white, no greys involved

Lastly, and most importantly, the world had just two faces then – one was good, the other was bad; there was no in-between. The good ways of the world were to be followed and the evil and malicious ways were to be abhorred. Good people were to be looked up to, and bad people were to be frowned upon. However, with maturity we realized that there is very little black and white in the world; it is mostly grey – good people are rare to come across and our own lives are a canvas full of grey hues.

Those innocent and playful times will never come back. However all we can do is try to include a few of those selfless principles that were the norm in our childhood. Amen to that.