It was the year 2020. The world had indeed changed since the Covid-19 pandemic. India was one of the worst hit countries with millions of people infected and over a hundred thousand dead. Lock-down was enforced. Streets were empty, people confined to their homes, birds were happily chirping and the sky was clear as ever.  The routine of billions had come to a halt. This was the scenario.

It was well past midnight. Swara lay on her bed staring at the ceiling. She couldn’t sleep. She had been through a lot. Each day was hectic. She was a mother of two and had a lot on her plate especially in a Covid world where household helps were not available. She was efficient, a multi-tasker and had her own disciplined way of doing her work.

Swara was forty, but looked much younger. She loved dressing up and reveled at the compliments that came her way. She was a vibrant and bubbly woman, energetic and cheerful. She had her mood swings too. This made her a ‘handle with care’ person. But overall she was fun to hang out with. 

She was loquacious and her kids and friends knew practically every single detail about her, right from her childhood to her present. She narrated all her stories to them and they enjoyed listening to her talk about her nostalgic memories. They always wanted her to write a blog but she would brush it away saying  that her language was pretty average and she was not up to it.

Tonight as she stared at the ceiling, she thought it was not a bad idea after all. Every night she would think about her childhood and all the fun she had had. Yes, she suddenly wanted to write everything about herself. She thought it would be interesting. This would also help re-live her past.

She got up from the bed, went to the hall and settled down with her laptop. She knew she had to begin writing before she changed her mind the next day.

She began typing…

“1980:  ‘It’s a girl!’

Hello! I never thought that one day I would want to write about myself. I am not a gifted writer and I think my vocabulary is pretty average. Is that a disclaimer? Well, yes!

When I reminisce about my childhood I want to start off by saying that I pity the kids of this generation who are really missing out on all the fun that children of my generation had. I was born to a simple, ordinary middle-class Palakkad Iyer couple, Lakshmi and Venkatesh. I was the younger of their two daughters and I was told that dad was disappointed to see another girl! Mom, however, was very happy. The same dad wanted me to have a girl and was extremely happy when my daughter Lavanya was born. He is very attached to her. Girls are indeed a blessing to parents.

I spent my childhood in a place called Ayyanthole in Thrissur, where we stayed in a rented house. My dad, a Chartered Accountant, had a steady job & income and my mom, a chemistry graduate, who used to work as a Lecturer in a college prior to her marriage, chose to be a housewife, devoting her entire time to her family. She has played a major role in honing me. My sister, older than me by two years demonstrated more maturity and behaved as if I was much younger to her. She always treated me like a baby and even now, after all these years, she hasn’t changed a bit!! I am still a little girl to her. I was brought up in a rather conservative manner, like most kids were, in our generation. Our wants were very limited. I enjoyed the little things in life, my eyes full of innocence. I was a very naughty kid.; puny, energetic and hyperactive. I wasn’t interested in eating and wasn’t much of a reader too. The only thing that amused me was finding mischievous things to do and playing non-stop, mostly alone.  I was my dad’s pet, he would take me to the nearby shop whether it was for buying vegetables, provisions or any other stuff. And I would use my puppy eyes on dad to always make him buy something for me too, mostly a sticker label, an eraser or pencil or a toffee. Stepping out of the house was always fun for me.

A typical day started with dad waking us up at 7 am.  We would then have filter coffee, with more milk and just drops of decoction. Milk was our only source of protein, in addition to the dal and ghee mom would serve us, along with rice. We were pure vegetarians. We had brunch at 10 am, which was always South Indian; rice, sambar & a lavish serving of vegetables. I would then go out to play and my sister would settle down to read. Tiffin, which was mostly idli, dosa or upma was at 2.30 pm. None of us would sleep in the afternoons. Fruits were stocked at home in plenty, especially bananas, which were my favourite. We were wholesale consumers of fruits. Mom would invariably make snacks like bhajias, pakodas for us to gorge on in the evenings. Dad would be back from office by 5.30 pm and dinner was at 7 pm. We would all sleep early, by 9.30 or latest by 10. There was no TV in the 80s and evenings were spent listening to Carnatic music concerts on the radio (more out of pressure from mom). Mom wanted us to learn Carnatic music and even enrolled us in classes, but we were never really interested. The efforts she put in to make us learn,  is a long story which I shall write about later! 

We loved listening to cricket commentary on the radio and used to follow all matches, both ODIs and test matches as we were all staunch cricket fans. Sunil Gavaskar was my favourite, so was Kris Srikkanth.  We also listened to the regional and national news daily on the radio. By the way, we got a TV at home when I was in the 7th standard! 

Those were days we had never heard of sunscreens and I would play outdoors in the hot sun even in peak summer. Haircuts were done by mom. Beauty salons were not common; there was only a barber, for dad’s haircut! We had a very simple lifestyle. Mom had a sewing machine and she made sure we didn’t pay a single penny to tailors. She stitched all our frocks, school uniforms, skirts, blouses, everything. Mom also stepped into the shoes of an electrician, plumber, carpenter and what not! (I have picked up all these from her and can very well say I am her duplicate)

Saturdays were temple days and we would visit a nearby temple, all the 4 of us. I had a green dress which I had kept aside exclusively for temple visits. After coming back, mom would make lemonade for all of us. We would borrow ice from our neighbour as we didn’t own a fridge.  This was a routine & I looked forward to this family outing and the lemonade thereafter. We had a membership in a public library,  where we would go once a week. Only two books were allowed but we were on such good terms with the librarian that he would let us take a dozen! I would mostly read Noddy, Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle, while my sister read Enid Blyton, Carolyn Keene & Agatha Christie! Need I say anything more about the difference in our maturity then? 

We never went to any restaurants, there was no concept of dining out. It was always mom’s cooking. We never went on any holidays either. The only break we had was visiting my grandparents who stayed at Palakkad and we would go at least once a month. This was another outing I loved. My maternal grandparents were fond of us, especially me. I guess my size and innocence attracted people to me. I was more attached to granny, my paati as I called her. She would always make something special whenever we visited. Her mysurpaks were out of the world, not to mention her coconut barfi. She was an excellent cook. I definitely want to write an episode exclusively about my paati. By the way,  Palakkad is a 2-hour journey from Thrissur, by bus. 

I can go on and on. I plan to write in episodes, choosing a topic at a time and narrating all memorable incidents, starting from childhood till now. I hope you will enjoy reading it.  Until my next post!”

Swara was now sleepy. She felt satisfied as she knew she had made a start. She resolved to write every day. Now she could eagerly look forward to something different and enjoy the nostalgia. This was something she really liked, she was still a child at heart. She closed her eyes and fell asleep.