Thursday, November 17, 2005

Hide and Seek

As I watch my 6 yr old niece running and shrieking at the top of her voice, chasing her friend around the house, I feel nostalgic all of a sudden. I find myself thinking of the time when I was 6, when I used to run around without a care in the world. When I used to go crazy over cotton candy, bawl and make a scene so my folks would buy me my favorite toy, make sand castles, get scared of a rubber mask, be kutty wid my friend and abba the next min! When i sneaked into my mom's room and smear all her lipsticks on my face, and wrap her dupatta around me like a saree and pretend to be a famous movie star! When my favourite meal was Maggi and a treat meant getting to eat a whole packet of Gems, without sharing! When I got excited about going to the railway station and look at the trains, or looking up and waving at the aeroplanes that went by, stupidly believing that they're waving back! When getting a 'star' in my notebook meant getting treated to an ice cream. When getting BonBon chocolate biscuits in tiffin was considered a delicacy. When I got nightmares of having to apply Dettol on my cuts and bruises and when band-aids were 'in fashion'!!

Being a kid was so much fun! I just stood and gazed at my niece, lost in thought...when all of a sudden, she looked up and called, "Bujiii, lets play hide and seek, but I'll hide and you'll seek!" I smiled and turned to face the wall and start the long count from 1 to 10...realising, I'm not so grown up after all! The kid is hiding inside me...all I have to do, is find her.

36 comments:

Ashish Shakya said...

Nostalgia kills the adult in you,for a while,at least.And childhood is a good place to retreat to from time to time.One thing about kids is their free-spirited creativity -it never ceases to inspire.

"The kid is hiding inside me...all I have to do, is find her."

Very well put.

Times have changed.We still run around, but that's cos we have a million things to do.I can still pig out on Maggi and chocolates though :-D

milo said...

bingo!!
m J ;-(
Bt neways shukar hai sangat ka kuch to asar aya...wooo!!! those days, hamara gang n hide n seek...

R said...

yes!! true.

and i am kinda sure you still love maggi!! all those i know who have enjoyed eating like freaks never lose the passion for it ..lol

cherubic_chipmunk said...

aha how much ur words reflect my thoughts-evry nite my lil' prayer to god used 2've dis on de top of de list-to lemme relive those moments of joy again but then i realized it is i who am binding myself from doin that-so wenever i c a kid immersed in its own world,i bcome a part of it-and u bet they lov it too...kids and their innocent pleasures-how i wish i stayed 1 for life...
fantastic post megz-lov ya wen u write such posts-;)

Kroopa Shah (Kr00pz) said...

And thats the case with everyone. We all have a kid inside of us just waiting to come out. It remains to be seen when :-)

Random said...

being a kid is fun...only, dont dress up in a duputta or smear your mom's lipstick on your face. that would just look silly.

the Monk said...

u know, looking back now, childhood seems like a time when u were truly without a care...but think abt it...this is an adult's point of view...back then, i know i had a lot of worries...like how many runs am i gonna score when i go out to bat today...or trying to hide that report card from my parents...all of which seem very silly now...so...

desperado said...

nice post
chidlhood ---those were carefree days n dont know but they seem ages before....

bingo on the point tht band aids were in fashion. :)

well the kid is inside everyone but now its just too scared to come out...or rather we make all the efforts that it doesnt....with talks like "grow up"

MM said...

beautiful post megha

n yes... one more thing...once u find her, dont let her go hiding again

Ar Ar Ar Arrrrr said...

Just rememebered:

Aapke anadr jo kalakar chupa hai..
use bahar mat aane dena
agar woh bahar aa gaya
toh hide-n-seek ho jaayega


I dont know why I wrote that in the first case ;)

Anyway, this post reminded me of ma days when I was 6 yr old and used to chase butterflies, play hide-n-seek, use band-aid for fashion...etc...etc...etc...

Yes...being in fun is real fun...and now matter how much we grow up in age..the kiddish behavior will always be there inside us.

Nice one Mirage!!

Mirage said...

@phoenix: The innocence of a kid is something I want to keep with me till the end... oh btw, chocolates still rule my tastebuds! :)

@milo: lol! yaa, buri sangat ka hardam jaldi asar aata hai! ;) just kiddin...we'll all play hide n seek agen some day!

@rohit: Oh yes i do love maggi even now...but i just cant make it my staple food!

@arvind: Seriously man, really wish those carefree days wud last forever! oh n thnx for appreciating my post man! :)

@kroopa: I wish the kid in me wud come out more often...!

@Rash: hehe...well i wont mind dressing up in a 'real' saree tho!

@pradyot: Thnx man! n thnx for visiting!

@varun: lol..yea maybe ur right. nut hey those tensions never lasted long...and didnt have any lasting effect!

@dhruv: exactly...if only we'd take each day as it comes, life wud be so much simpler na?

@manjari: I wont! :)

@Sushmit: Yep, but tht's always a time that wont come bak. Hey thnx for dropping by! :)

@Arz000n: erhmm cudnt really get what ur tryin to say with that li'l poem! Neway, yea being a kid is always fun...and sometimes its worth it to shed ur inhibitions and chase butterflies agen! :)

radiohead said...

hey nice post. I was smiling readin all of it. it made me go years back when i was a kid too .. [ u knw na how much i hate growin old .. i stilll wish i m 10 years old .. but only on the condition tht i dont have to face school exams :)] ....

those days when we used to play cricket on street .. pik up the balls even from drains [ eeeks .. but was fun ] .. and then ball jumps in to someones house .. and tht BHUDDHA wont give the ball .....

and then tht mom ka dupatta .. which always had such nice smell tht it seemed to be the best blanket to cover urselves while sleeping or otherwise ....

aaahhhh wht nice dayz ..

Nikhil said...

Very nice.
This reminded me of the hindi poem we did in school 'Mera naya bachpan' by Subhadra Kumari Cahuhan,wonder if you have read that.
If not,do read :)

Keshi said...

childhood memories r the sweetest ever...

Im very childlike...ppl always say that...:) and I guess I dun wanna lose that either...as long as I dun think immature :)


Keshi.

Naresh said...

mks me very nostalgic too! no matter how dissmilar v all r, when it comes to childhood reminiscing, we all stand at same point, feeling nostalgic!

Mirage said...

@anuj: Mom's dupatta still smells the same, man! :)

@Nikhil: I dont think I've read it, but I'll try to get my hands on it somehow! :)

@Keshi: Its good to be mature, but I dont want that at the cost of losing my innocence...

@Naresh: U bet! It always touches the innermost chords of our heart.

radiohead said...

ya it does smell the same ..... but now i dont use it as a blanket ... ugggggh :( .. how insensitive !!

Ar Ar Ar Arrrrr said...

You changed the template too..

Wooo...Hooo!!!

I think its the effect of Winter season...many of ma friends have changed their templates too

;)

zxcv said...

wow refreshing post...
everytime i look at the kids playing cricket near my appartment i yearn to have a go myself. i remember how much fun we had flaunting the muddy clothes to the frnds as a trophy acknowleding the hard days work, even thou u knew back home this would mean a lecture from mom. gosh even thou i havent been tagged there is so much thats coming to mind that i have to write a blog on thisone
BTW thou the attraction to choclates has wearied, maggi is still one of my favourites.

Mirage said...

@anuj: arre baba i didnt say tht u still use it as a blanket! it wont even cover half of u, m sure!

@arz000n: i guess so...just wanted to brk the monotony!

@zxcv: Hehe yea i dont think i can ever get over chocolates! hey lookin fwd to ur post! :)

Kaala Kavva said...

ha ha nice post...
but i dont seem to remember my childhood after sooo many yrs

Anjalika said...

nice one,megha...got me glued!!

childhood....oh yeah i miss my childhood as well,but i avoid gettin nostalgic bout it,cos it wud only make me more sad and angry as well...
sad bcos it reminds me of my parents who were so close to me,but have now become estranged..
and angry,bcos of the darkness of my childhood..
the phase which got my innocence drained into a ditch...u know wat i'm talkin bout..
shit...i dn't know how to react when i'll face my father tom..5 yrs is a long time,and all these yrs i tried my bst to live as hapy as i can without him..
childhood?...i really miss those days megha..i do!!!!

Mirage said...

@ze exaggerator: u dont? wow...its something i cant forget!

@nika: Its okay to miss the old times yaar, but its important to knw there wud be happier times ahead...have faith yaar, u'llbe fine. :)

Rahul said...

That was so nice, mirage!!! I revisited my past too with that. You know what i dont think we ever need to grow up. Children discover something new everyday; grownups just call it quits and settle down....

Keshi said...

yes Mirage :)

Keshi.

Blogger said...

great to read....nice blog

Mirage said...

@rahul- yep, we shud keep descovering new things everyday! Thts what wud help break the monotony

@keshi- :)

@jharkhand- thnx4 dropping by...:)

manuscrypts said...

new look :)... cant remember if i really knew i was having so much fun...

R said...

time to update !

Anonymous said...

Hey, funny lil woman(and I do mean little). Good to see youre trying not to let the years add to your age.
Keep... not growing :)
-SOxy

Ar Ar Ar Arrrrr said...

Where is this lady now??

Can you please come out with a new posty please?

:)

johney said...

Once I forgot how to be young. An old man's mistake. Reading your post reminds me of my childhood, which was ofcourse totally different from yours.
I never liked sweet things as a child. And I never played with toys. I disliked the dark but never feared it. Chocolates and Gems, they were not my type. And I never liked band-aids, a good cotton and bandage was always true for me.

In restropection I feel that I was never a child. And how can I forgot how to be young when I have never been young.

But still it is a pleasure to the eyes and ears to listen to the talks of the care free nature of children.

dwaipayan said...

i agree whole heartedly with u. we do miss our childhood. but if we ponder over, we'd find the child is still in us.we only need to let him do what he wants!!!!!

Mirage said...

@manuscrypts: those were good times!

@rohit: so i did!

@SOxy: hey so ur alive after all! whr hv u been man!?

@az000n: how can i defy thee...!?

@johney: Hey u ok? Just so u knw, u dont need to be a kid to feel like one...take care buddy! :)

@dwaipayan: yea man, we keep trying to suppress tht kid within us, we shud just let it out!

hey thnx for visiting! :)

Jayant said...

Ok, I'm finally here to comment! :D So, I'm a bit late..well, ok VERY late, but I'm here.
Very well said. I miss my childhood too. I miss being innocent, not having anything in the world to worry about, except for maybe, who stole the chalk from the teacher's desk. :P
I miss the way I used to make drawings in the air for guests who were dying to see a specimen of my childish cuteness. Those were the days. *sigh*
Now life's become a lot more complicated. You just don't have yourself to worry about, but a hundred other people in your life. It's not you anymore. It's a caricature of your troubled self who's dying to go back to the yesteryears, back to that ignorance, back to that bliss. A very nice post indeed. It's bad that I couldn't comment earlier.

Nenlos said...

lovely, simply lovely! the first decade of one's life is the best. it's a pity we dont remember every single yr of that. I remember running around and playing, not giving a damn about falling down. And even if i or any of my friends did get bruised, it was a big joke. Getting hurt was considered cool cuz u'd get to wear those "amazing" band-aids. Love those yrs!!