When we were kids

14th November is observed as Children’s Day throughout India to commemorate the birthday of the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru who loved children. While everyone is changing their facebook pictures to their childhood ones and getting lost in the nostalgia of childhood, I too have a story to share. The story behind this picture.

Seeing us change our display picture on Facebook and Whatsapp, my technosavy mom, got this picture scanned and put it up as her display picture. A few years back, we got the names of my brother and me written on a rice grain and pasted on an old childhood photograph. I appreciated the look of the picture, but never really knew the story behind it.

While talking about display pictures, she made a fleeting mention that this was the first time ever the two of us stepped on the beach. I was surprised at this remark as I was already four and my brother two years old in this picture. Having stayed in Mumbai all my childhood, it wasnt the first time I was going to the beach, but somehow as kids, we hated to get our feet dirty in the sands of the beach. Mom and Dad had to constantly carry us in their arms all the while we stayed on the beach!

So this picture is of one fine day while we were having a short holiday staying in a hotel very close to the beach. Dad had gone out to his dental clinic to treat a patient. And I and my brother wanted to go to the beach. As heavy as the two of us were becoming. Mom made it clear that she wouldn’t be able to carry both of us alone and we would have to walk. Somehow the desire to go to the beach was strong and I agreed to walk in the sand while my brother asked to be directly put into shallow waters so that we doesnt have to walk through the sand. I know, such uptight little kids we were!

Having found her hands free, mom could now operate the camera to take some pictures. But the moment she took out the camera from her bag, both of us wanted to use the camera and click pictures ! So she ran away from us and my brother followed her extending his hand to plead possession of the camera. And I followed behind, equally desiring the camera.

“And that’s how I got this pose from you guys,” she chatted me on whatsapp while I was lost in mundane of my desk job. It is memories like these which makes one feel alive. Nostalgia has a purpose. In its course, it makes the past sweeter and us more hopeful for the future. It tells us that we can appreciate life better in retrospection. Would we be hoping for a happy future, if we didn’t find the nostalgia of past so endearing!