Thursday, November 02, 2006

Oliver twisted!!

Another special tag that evokes fond memories..Silverine has tagged me on memoirs , when we were kids about the age of Bobanum Mollyum(mallu child heroes)..Days when we never knew what globalisation was..what professionalism was..what inflation was…ah..those days when you just had to bother if there was a power cut when Giant robot was being played

..The Wonder Years Tag
1. Write 8-10 things about childhood ( 1-12 years) that you miss.
2. Write 8-10 things that you disliked about childhood.
3. Tag a few people.

What I miss about childhood

1. The first thing that comes to my mind are those yearly summer vacations when I went to kottayam and spend weeks at my grandparents place...My cousins used to come over and we had our own hardy boys tales. Hitching to the nearby cemetery and finding out the oldest man sleeping there..It was our own way of learning maths the fun way!! :)

2. The simple basic ice cream my grandma used to make. That taste still wafts in the air as I write. Whoever said Baskin Robbins is the best...I remember my grandma saying years later that I never used to drink anything cold. The feeding bottle had to be wrapped around a towel and I still cant believe I did that!!

3. The jigsaw puzzles which I did many times over again and again..The novelty and enthusiasm never was lost even in the nth time..I stll have a 1000 piece puzzle which was a precious treasure for me…er..is still a precious..

4. I miss going to the beach with parents..When my parents seemed to be more wary of us going careless deep into the waters..Those silly attempts to touch the wave at its edge..and watching your name disappear in the next wave..cross checking if the sun sets in the east or the west..The trip wouldn’t be complete without a masala dosa from the nearby coffee house..

5. I miss Christmas times..That seemed to be the only time when I was master superior at home..I was very conscious that I run the crib making process..That feeling of being the architect when your parents just watched how far we did go..I barely survived a full mass during christmas and most often had to be carried back home on shoulders..

6. Watching new year programmes in doordarshan..Might be the only other day when I must have been awake till midnight..Prannoy Roy if I remember right used to host “the world this week”..I used to watch with dad even though I barely new anything happening outside trivandrum ..

7. I miss the camel color painting competition..Those rare days in school when I felt like "Elvis Presley." When I eagerly waited for teachers to appreciate my “Picasso” paintings..

8. I miss making the paper boats or four squares..or paper planes..I vaguely remember getting caught by my class teacher in 111 C , I guess for tearing half the pages in my notebook to make paper planes..

9. I miss the train journeys to bangalore…That was the northern most part of the country for me those days..I used to stretch my neck outside the coachwindows lest I don’t miss anything ..the sounds..the sights..the smell..

10. I miss the sheer joy when Amma or Appa comes back home after they had gone somewhere..nowadays we are so limited by the so called beingness of “maturity”!!

What I disliked about childhood

1. Drinking milk. I disliked being forced to drink milk and almost every time I vomited it out but my mom wouldn’t relent…Ditto..dint have to edit Silver’s post

2. Long prayer sessions at native place...I always wondered what so much to pray for..For me it were just 3 things which I repeated daily..

a) Give me some brains to study
b) Keep Dad and Mom happy
c) Keep all of us healthy

I couldn’t think of anything further then...

3. I disliked showing my report cards to Dad..That was real nasty..I never did score those huge marks in upper primary...

4. Being forced to eat vegetables..I never liked avial or infact most of the vegetables except bitter gourd..Things I ll kill for now..

5. Hated when guest came in at home and I had to stop the television for their sake, when any of my favourite programmes were running.

6. Visiting the eye doc..I used to break my glasses very often and I was made to read the chart as many times..Towards the end it was like..”I can read the V T and U very well..F T E and Q quite easy..but am finding tough with the Y L Z and S”..The doc used to go crazy.

7. The school drill..and somehow it always happened when it was the sunniest..I thought it was torture of magnanimous proportions.

8. Combing my hair. I still remember the fuss folks made if they couldn’t see the proper parting line ..Any deviation was dealt as if the Pakistanis just tried to change the line of control!!

9. Helping father in household chores..I tried all sorts of ingenious ways to wriggle out, though with a failure rate of 99.998%.

10. Getting up in the morning for school ..I think this comes by default for all!!

I would like to thank Silverine for creating this suppa tag that takes you down the memory lane..And I invite Velu,Rama,Sreejith,Maya,Anand,Rashmi,Dhanush,Shakhi,Neers,Amu,priya and Jac to take up the journey of those wonder years.

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

Me first!!! :p

Man!!! I can relate to so many things here...!!!!

Vacations and the basic Ice Cream my mom made. Going to the beach in Kerala with parents and cousins during summer vacations, nothing like going in a big group. My brother almost drowned once so your folks were wise to be cautious. The programmes in Doordarshan and praying for the power to stay when Star Trek and Giant Robot was on :) And the joy of my parents coming home from somewhere with some goody in their hand.
Among the dislikes, me too hated the long prayer sessions in Kerala and wondered if God was not getting bored too like me. Combing my hair to perfection and getting the parting right was a drill in itself!

This was lovely, so many things I didn't put in are here :) Thanks for taking this up!!!

Anonymous said...

Mathew: They were all so cute and honest right from heart. I can related to TV prorams' and paper boats when it rains. I used to wait for the water to go zigzag so that my boat continues its way. That innocence will never comeback as we are grownup hmm..

~*. D E E P A .* ~ said...

You really started cooking ? WOW ! just simple pure WOW !

Awesome tag ... Should do this sometime .. TC

Jiby said...

i am blog-hopping to this tag after reading BVN's nice one. so many things you have written here that i totally forgot about...the camel painting competition, the long xmas mass, those homemade icecreams i gobbled up without even letting it freeze, the time we made a paper boat and took it out to sail when it rained and seeing my mom charging at me with a cane from a distance and she trying to catch me and i running back all the way home and we both ending up with fever.

such a beautiful post man...i'll come back to read it again and again.

Anonymous said...

Hey this is a fantabulous post (dnt mind my going berserk and coining words like this "fabulous and fantastic"). This took me down my memory lane too. I also can relate to things you did. Guess we , as children, were a homogeneous mass when it comes to some basic likings and dislikings.

P.S so you tagged me and I have to take it up. hmmmmm but I will enjoy this tag..so many things to write about. and if I plagiarise some incidents from here don't mind, coz like I said some incidents are universally commited :)

Neer said...

DONE!! http://multiandnotuniverse.blogspot.com/
:)

Priyankari said...

A really enjoyable post! Could relate where it comes to waking up in the morning and the camel competition. Nice one!

mathew said...

@silverine

Thanks a lot for the first comments..that was great that you made this tag..I spend a great time looking back!!

@priya

exactly..Somethings are meant to be frozen..they never come back..

@Deepa

waiting for your stories..yeah and the cooking thing..heard of titanic..somethin like that..hehehe..

@JIby..

thanks man..waiting for your take..Silver has tagged u as well..

@Shakhi

ofcoz..that was very nostalgic..I kept thinking of those days hours after I finished scribbling it down..

giant robot..that was a favourite of an entire generation!!

mathew said...

@Amu

Oh yeah..its bound to be common..we all think alike when we are kids..Growing up brings in all the changes..

@Neers..

wow..that was a quick one..now you are building up a reputation in take up tags super fast!!

@Priyankari

Camel color competitions..do they still have it in schools..I would very much like to take part again!! :)

quills said...

Wow..I see many a common thing from my childhood days. :)

Camelin Color Contests, long long prayer sessions with Ammachi reading almost all the prayers ever written and us cousins fidgeting while kneeling on the paya, yummy home made icecream (nothing to beat that I agree), and ofcourse Christmas time which was so perfect trying to make the crib, the xmas tree, waiting for the carol from local parish to come home, but dreading the santa handing you his cane while he danced. :)

Had real fun reading this. :) First time too on your blog.

Rai said...

Hey, this is a g-r-e-a-t post! Very sweet .... it reminded me of so many things ...and most of the things that you wrote about your childhood match with mine...some things are universal you know ....
" I disliked showing my report cards to Dad..That was real nasty.... " How true! Even I hated report cards and grades ... but loved to craftwork and was extremely enthusiastic abt extracurricular activities more than the text books ...wished why those subjects were not taken seriously enough ...
And how I hated to sacrifice RAMAYANA on sundays as I had to attend dance classes ...too bad!


Your post flooded me with memories ...simply loved reading this post!

Movie Mazaa said...

Yay!!
:D

I am glad that I am tagegd with this one. Since it was absolutely engaging going through ur post! :) Ah!! Those long bygone days, and those New Year Progs on Doordarshan - I wonder if I wud have remembered, if u hadnt brought it up!!
:)

Thxxxxxxxxxxxxx!
:)

Anonymous said...

Sweet post man!
I also had great fun doing this one...

Giant Robot seems to be everyone's favourite!

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Et tu Matt??? Hehehe

Interesting recollections... Accepted... lemme try too... :-)

mathew said...

@quills

Thnax for dropping by..

"fidgeting while kneeling on the paya"
remember that so clearly..I used to bring up strange reasons for that as well!!

@Rai

Hey..guess you should take up the tag as well..all those days were truly wonder years..

@Velu

Yeah..was goin through all blogs which took up this tag..all of em leaves me with a tinge of nostalgia!!

@anonymous

seems like some trouble with the beta..

@Sreejith

This beta thing is making me crazy...awaiting your memories..

Neha said...

Now that was something...as everybody else said, some things are common with childhood, most of our likes and dislikes are quite similar....but thanks for making us revisit those memory lanes...thoroughly enjoyed this short journey! :)

Amrita said...

ay hy sir completed your tag. i dunno why my comment is showing up as annonymous. guess i am starting to have a prob with beta

Neer said...

hey alex! hows you, pal? thanks!

Sreejith Panickar said...

Me? Anonymous? :-((

I have a face, I have a face! :-((

How do we know said...

That is such a sweet post ... almost takes us back to your childhood.. my most favorite part" Bangalore was the northernmost tip.." and"New year programs on DD" :-) TOO COOL!

pophabhi said...

Excellent hop down the memory lane! I concur in lots of points. Especially the 99.998 % SLA adherance in assisting household chores! :D

mathew said...

@neha

hey i wish you to take up the tag as well!!

@amu

yup..i guess google gets drunk sometimes!!:-P

@neers

alex??

@Sreejith

Lol!!!..oh yeah..i can see u in orkut!!

@Shakhi

thanx a lot for takin it up!!

@how do we know

hehehe..seriously those days the ignorance was bliss..

@pophabhi

hey cool name u have..any story behind it??.nice to see another lazy folk like me!! :-P

jac said...

I have done the tag !!!

Anonymous said...

awsum .........even i hated avial like anything ........but now ..........