Forever young…

As adults, most of us wish we can go back to a time when we were young and carefree. Childhood. A time when all we had to worry about was getting new trump cards, will Mummy let me have ice cream for dinner or when will my summer holidays begin, and of course, when will all my friends turn up to play cricket today?

Of course there was homework to be completed and tests and exams to worry about too. When you contrast those with the typical concerns of adults: EMIs, job security and family issues, childhood worries seem like, well…child’s play. Don’t they?

A typical day in summer vacation would be like this: Wake up at the crack of dawn. While waking up at even 8am seemed impossible on days when one had to go to school, we would be wide awake and raring to go by 6am. A quick glass of Bournvita/Horlicks (unless you were a Complan boy/girl) and breakfast would be gulped down, and off we would go to play. Or cycle aimlessly. And return home when the sun was high up in the sky and there was a persistent rumble in our tummies. Have a quick bath, and then lunch.

Some TV time (all those DD shows in the afternoon for kids. Baingan raja, anyone?) and then a long nap in the afternoon. Come 5 O’ clock, we would be raring to go out and play again. Maybe badminton for sometime, and then off to the local library. To pick up Archie comics or a Hardy boys’ or a Nancy Drew. Which we would speedread in the evening and late into the night, to return the next day for more books.

And so the days would pass, until the last day of vacation, when we would suddenly remember pending holiday homework and begin to panic.

But somehow, all that we remember when we think back to our childhood is how carefree we were, and how much fun we had. Never the struggle with homework and tests.

Maybe, ripe into old age as well, we’ll look back at our twenties, thirties and forties and only remember the good times. Milestones like our first job, promotion, wedding, and birth of our kids.

Maybe time has a way of dulling the unpleasant and accentuating the good. Only time will tell.