I remember my 5th birthday for 3 reasons. First of all it was the first birthday that I actually do remember (I still remember thinking that no one could tease me chiming 'Nalam vayassil nattapraanthu' anymore), secondly it was the first day of my first standard Christmas exams and last but not the least, the gifts!!! They were not extraordinary, but still they were gifts, what other day do you get a box full of lollypops all for yourself.
Though it was not a direct gift to me, this was around the time the unused store room near the kitchen was finally organized and cleaned. The junk that was in there for decades were all sorted out and Valyamma proudly arranged the aluminium boxes of grocery in the new shelves. I was very pleased with all this, as I had found a few things of interest in the junk that was thrown away, and I got an extra room to play and to hide when I don't want to be seen by anyone.
The things that caught my interest were few broken toys, I had found some old diaries in there too, but I threw them all away, as the letters had not begun to fascinate me yet. The toys, though broken and unusable, were a totally different matter. Among other remains of some lost childhood I had found a big orange wheel cart and a doll which could play an audio cassette (of course in another decade, it was all broken). It was really a good find. I spent the whole afternoon in the storeroom munching on my candy's and wondering about the child who played with such sophisticated toys.
And of course, I had the exam which I did not want to remember ever in my life. I was hardly the wonder kid people wanted me to be. School was not really my thing, I was secretly rooting for retaining my Kindergarten drop out status.
Today I turned 36, how fast the time flys. Incidentally I had an exam today. Do I want to remember it ever in my life ? Nein...
Though it was not a direct gift to me, this was around the time the unused store room near the kitchen was finally organized and cleaned. The junk that was in there for decades were all sorted out and Valyamma proudly arranged the aluminium boxes of grocery in the new shelves. I was very pleased with all this, as I had found a few things of interest in the junk that was thrown away, and I got an extra room to play and to hide when I don't want to be seen by anyone.
The things that caught my interest were few broken toys, I had found some old diaries in there too, but I threw them all away, as the letters had not begun to fascinate me yet. The toys, though broken and unusable, were a totally different matter. Among other remains of some lost childhood I had found a big orange wheel cart and a doll which could play an audio cassette (of course in another decade, it was all broken). It was really a good find. I spent the whole afternoon in the storeroom munching on my candy's and wondering about the child who played with such sophisticated toys.
And of course, I had the exam which I did not want to remember ever in my life. I was hardly the wonder kid people wanted me to be. School was not really my thing, I was secretly rooting for retaining my Kindergarten drop out status.
Today I turned 36, how fast the time flys. Incidentally I had an exam today. Do I want to remember it ever in my life ? Nein...
