Being the only child of my extremely loving and somewhat carefree parents my childhood was honestly like a fairytale. Big fat joint family, wonderful neighbors, weekend outings and lots of Cartoon Network. Mind you we were a family of six where my dad and mom were the only earning members and we had very little to spend on any kind of luxuries. Never the less it was a magical time!
I would wake up early in the morning, freshen up and run around our neighborhood with my skipping ropes, my grandpa would keep a watch over me while having his morning tea with our next door neighbors who were like family. I would return back after an hour and grandma would feed me breakfast and then I would finish off any pending school work(I hated studying).
School lasted from 11.30am to 4.30pm and the bus would drop us off by 5.30pm. On the way back from the bus stop to our home my I would buy candies with the lunch money I had saved, Fatafat, Boomer, Center fresh were my favorites.
On reaching home I would watch the Scooby gang solve their mysteries or the Power Puff Girls save the day yet again till it was time for dinner and then what felt so unfair then, bed by 9.30pm.
Weekends were a blast, I could stay up till 10.30pm on Fridays and have dinner with the whole family. Saturday and Sunday mornings were booked with the neighborhood friends for games of hide and seek, running races and kabaddi. During lunch mom always made my favorite desserts and in the afternoon I could watch unlimited cartoons till dinnertime.
Summer vacations were always spent travelling to different cities and trying out the local cuisines and bringing back souvenirs to show to my friends back at school.
And that’s how life seemed to go on forever. Yes, those were my fairytale days of laughter, joy and unconditional love. I’ve been incredibly lucky to have all those people around me. After all the best moments in life are not made by the places we are in or the things we buy but by the people we share it with.
