Balloons

Time has a way of breaking up our memory into fragments of miniscule pieces.

Trying to capture and preserve them becomes exceedingly difficult. But sometimes something comes along your way and the little fragments play in your mind again, like an old forgotten video tape. 

This morning as we sat for breakfast with one of our favorite hindi songs playing in the background, we talked of how I was such a difficult kid, of how I hated to be with anyone except my mother, and how it was so difficult to get me to do almost anything, even eat. These talks aren't very rare at home. Mom loves to tell them over and over, and I love listening to them. Its a different kind of happiness- little chunks of memory playing again. 


This time it was of our days at Infantry road at Bangalore. I was in upper kindergarten, atleast I was supposed to be because I went to school, but not literally. How? I was studying at Little Rock Indian School, Brahmavar and I lived around 300 kilometers away, in Bangalore. I didn't have to skip a year or anything, they would let me give the final exam and if I passed, I could enter first grade, with the rest of my friends :D 


So I had a one-year long fun-filled holiday.
Dad would leave for work before I could wake up, so when I did it would just be mom and me. I'd go straight to the TV, flip to Cartoon Network and sit there laughing away for most of the morning. It was the only way I'd have any breakfast- when mom pushed morsels of food into my mouth whenever I laughed at Tom running away into the horizon. Around two hours later there would be a roar, one that the whole of the neighborhood could hear. To me, it brought excitement. My (cousin) brother's friend would come on his bullet ( which was one of a kind, the noise it made - like a jet and bullock cart combined :P ). He came everyday, how he had the free time for it, I don't know. But he came every morning, and every morning he asked me the same question- " Still watching cartoons, Janet? " only to get the same excited nod from me. "You'll become one soon." I liked that idea.


I don't remember when he left, but soon an uncle would come. He was a family friend of ours, and with him came the happiest things of the world- Balloons. 
And loads of them too. 
Together with mom, they'd blow them all up and put them in my room till it was full. Big, bright, small, polka-dotted, patched and colorful- they were all there. And I'd just jump right into them. It was the best feeling in the world.  
I was a kid of four and I had a room full of happiness that I could just splash into. EVERYday. It could't have been better. 


But it wasn't all games for me. Late in the afternoon mom and me would sit down with walls of color around us. With a slate, a few colorful chalks and an unbelievably happy-looking abacus she'd teach me everything my teachers 300 kms away did and more. 


Some days, a boy who lived nearby would come to play with me. I remember one day in particular. We were playing doll-house, as I'd suggested. But he might have been in one of those evil 'lets-destroy-everything' moods guys seem to get into because soon he transformed my happy story into one with wars and guns, I didn't like it but I played along. Before I knew it, the head of my favorite Barbie was thrown away (literally) in a 'bomb blast'. I stared at my headless Barbie, looked at him with disgust and burst into tears. 
I don't think I've ever really forgiven him for that. 


Anyway, before I knew it it was evening. Time for dad to come home! 
Every evening, once he was back he would take me out for a drive, and on our way back we'd stop at a little shop and he'd buy me a packet of cheese balls. Peppy
To this day, I've never had cheese balls that tasted better than them, even if I buy the same pack. 
As I grew older I realized it wasn't the cheese balls, it could have been anything. It must be the innocence and the love. I've stopped buying them, I now just look at them and smile.


The day had ended and I was soon tucked to sleep. 
Cartoons, chocolates, balloons and cheese balls. I was the most content kid in the world.

A lot has changed over time. 

I don't need balloons and cheese balls to keep me happy anymore.

I look around myself and I know that my family and friends now take their place.

But these memories will keep me going.

I will keep them, because it is a happy place that I can escape into.