Daily Post: Childhood

In response to daily posts’s prompt: Childhood

My Childhood

When I look back at my life so far, I must admit, my most favorite years were the ones, when I was a child. I was free, I played, I sang when I felt lonely. I had my siblings whom I played with after school. I needed no friends, my siblings were my world.

I played with my two older brothers, I remember I was playing cricket with them, they had their friends also, I was never afraid, I had my brothers, who’d look after me, the other boys wouldn’t dare drive me away, because I was a girl.

I played with my younger siblings too, we used to play with dolls, ones I made myself with mom’s help. We had a great time, being parents and getting our dolls to be bride and groom.

We did not play the same game, we’d go on hikes exploring the neighborhood, once we landed at a place where they were frying parathas( Indian flat bread fried in clarified butter) we hung around and the older people gave us some to eat. It was terrific. The occasion was Muharram a Muslim celebration.

Whenever my mom was having trouble lighting the wood, I’d take an ax to split the wood, I’d have my left foot on the thick wood, and tried to split it with an ax with my right hand. My dad never knew I was doing such a dangerous thing. My mom would call me and say, “Rani can you split the wood for me?”

I’d be delighted and I’d say, “Sure Amma (Mom) I’m coming,”

She was so busy,she had no idea what I was using to split the wood. Those were my most memorable years. No I never got hurt, I guess my Guardian Angels were looking after me. This is what I’m thinking now, at the time I wasn’t afraid, fear was unknown to me.

When I think about my children, I’d never let a nine year old touch an ax, let alone use it to split wood.

I had twelve solid years of fun day in and day out, then the worst happened my beloved Dad died we moved away to Bangladesh, and nothing was the same.

I’m thankful at least my childhood was a lot of fun when my dad was alive.

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Writing – 101:Why do you write

Today, tell us why do you write?

Set a timer and free-write for 15 or 30 minutes without stopping. Begin your post with “I write because or start it any other way you wish.

I’ve never asked this question why do I write? Now that the question appears before me I wonder, why do I write?

Writing has opened doors for me that were in my mind closed. I’m able to write about my likes and dislikes. My childhood which was the best years of my life. Where we were a happy family, we were contented with everything we had. We did not ask anymore, satisfaction was the keyword in our lives .

Suddenly it all changed, we saw and understood,life was not all about happiness, we must make room or get used to dark unhappy days. Writing gives me the avenue to vent. I know and hope others will read about me and make sense of my personality, why I’ve  become  so quiet, why I take no interest in laughter and good times.

I’ve tasted all of that and thought I’ll always be happy, but it was taken away from n me on a bright sunny morning,when my Dad took his last breath. Before this incidence I thought happiness is forever.

The words of my,”Moral Science Book ” still haunts me, “man can be happy to some extent but cannot attain perfect happiness.”

Little did I realize nothing is permanent in this life, everything is temporary, it is this thought that scares me, I’m scared to be too happy, knowing that tomorrow I won’t be.

I write because I’m free to express myself. There are so many things I can write about,which I won’t be able to do when I am with my friends. They may not like when I talk only about myself.

I can write more,but now I think this is all for today.

I’m happy to be a part of the writing 101 participants. My best wishes to each and every one of you. Thank you for reading my thoughts about ,Why Do I Write?

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Daily Prompt: Golden Age

If you had to live forever as either a child, an adolescent,or an adult, which would you choose– and why?

I don’t think living forever is an option for me. If it happens by chance, even if I don’t want to. I’d prefer to live forever as a child.

There are countless reasons for my decision. When I recall my childhood there wasn’t a day in my life when I was unhappy. It was a perfect childhood in my mind.

I had my loving parents, I had the security every one needs and unbelievable siblings except one. You cannot beat this feeling.

My days were filled with school, play and delicious food my mother cooked. I wasn’t worried about going hungry, or lack of shelter, or shortage of people to play with, God the Almighty provided it for us.

It was like the old song, “where never was heard a discouraging word and the sky is not cloudy all day.”

It was not the case with adolescence, or adulthood. These two stages were encompassed with sorrow, fear, and everything else that my childhood did not confront me  with.

Comparatively childhood was the best years for me!

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Writing 101,Day Nineteen: Don’t stop the Rockin’

Today is a free writing day.Write at least four-hundred words, and once you start typing don’t stop. No self-editing,no trash talking, and no second-guessing : just go. Bonus points if you tackle the idea you’ve been playing with but think is too silly to post about.

Four-hundred words one at a time Go.

I spend hours thinking how my childhood could have been if it was not cut short by my father’s passing. I know we’d live in the same house, we had to my father was working and we’d need a place to live. We lived in an ideal place at least my memory of childhood tells me so.

A large house, a race course nearby to walk and watch the horse race, the jockeys trying hard to win it for their owners. It was wonderful to watch, then we’d walk further to see if there were other things that would catch our fancy, oh yes, one after the other life was showing us the beauty of the place we lived.

Then the worst happened Dad was with us no longer. We moved to a far away place  we knew nothing about. The people sold vegetables ,fish, chicken from door to door. While I watched and complained to mom that the potatoes were too tiny and the onions were unattractive, mom would laugh and say the reason is the soil, the weather and things like that.

I’m not sure she convinced me but I know I did not like the place so I picked everything negative about it. We started growing up all the while thinking Dad would come back because he cannot leave us forever.

Then big brother was married, he changed, he did not love us anymore. He was always angry with us. I was terribly scared of him and stayed quiet thinking if I say anything he’d hit me. At the same time wondered would he have changed so much if Dad was alive, my mind said, no . Dad certainly would not let him do so.

I wished we’d be the happy family we once were, but things did not let us be happy. Mom was constantly worried about money, she had to spend as little as possible to save some of it.

I finished high school, went to college, I did not like how the boys used to tease me. I managed to get admission in a girls college, to avoid getting teased everyday, it was awful.

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DP Daily Prompt: Tunnel Vision

You’ve been given the ability to build a magical tunnel that will quickly and secretly connect your home with the location of your choice— anywhere on earth.Where’s the end of your tunnel?

This is a very exciting prompt, I’m thinking of so many places. Let’s see which one will be most useful to me.

I’ve made my decision, I’d like to build the tunnel to connect to my parent’s home in Comilla, Bangladesh. It would be helpful, I’d like to magically make my evil brother,his wife, and her evil sister and her husband, disappear from our parent’s home forever.

I also need the magical powers to turn them into ants so the rest of us siblings can trample them to oblivion.

Why you want to know? My evil useless brother has taken our parent’s property, he and his wife and her relatives have taken possession of the house where we grew up in our childhood.

: https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/08/19/dp-daily-prompt-tunnel-vision

DP Daily Prompt: Futures Past

As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? How close are you from that vision?

I love talking about my childhood, in my early years in school,I had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up. I was always concerned about the present,one of my weakness was ‘homework’, if I got it done it was great, if not what kind of punishment will I endure, especially when nuns are your teachers. I didn’t wait to see I took matters in my own hand, pretended I was sick. Some days my excuse was it’s too cold, or I had a headache or stomach ache.

While it satisfied my father it didn’t my big sister, she’d scream at the top of her lungs accusing Dad for spoiling me.Then there was my big brother who’d sit by my side and with a broad smile would ask,”what was your excuse today?”

I of course would reply, “Do not talk too much big brother.”

This excuse of mine went on for a while, my father never questioned me, I’m sure he knew I was making an excuse to skip school.

When my father died the whole thing changed in my life , we moved to my parents city, my brother bought a house for us to live. There was no fooling around with school, big brother was at the helm, not knowing what he’d do made me very cautious, I started thinking about what I wanted to do when I grew up,the idea of teaching was on the top of my list.

I studied as much as I needed to get through in school,in college the pattern didn’t change, when I stepped in the university it suddenly dawned on me, I must study seriously or I’d fail the courses. I worked hard, my teachers were pleased with my performance, I was slowly reaching the top of the ladder of success, big sister of course was not ready to believe me but my teacher’s did which was more important than what my sister thought.

My final step to success was an education degree, which I was able to get without much trouble. My sister thought I shouldn’t tell anyone I have an education degree, people will make fun of you she said!

https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/05/30/dp-daily-prompt-4/

 

Writing Prompt: Childhood Revisited

Yes,I turned out pretty good, but the thing I would have liked different was to have my Dad longer than twelve years. To make him proud that despite my flimsy excuses of skipping school. I was able to continue and complete my education.

I would also have liked to be able to live in Rawalpindi rather than Bangladesh. My reason is I was comfortable there and I had friends whom I would have liked to be with,even after the completion of my education.

I have nothing against Bangladesh,my parents are from there. We adapted very quickly,we knew the language,thanks to my Dad who taught us how important it is to know one’s mother tongue. I missed my childhood friends, it’s the only reason and also my Dad’s presence in our lives would have been awesome.

“I know the saying man proposes,God disposes.”

I have kids they were fortunate to complete their education in Canada . This is what I wished and luckily my wish was granted.

https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/02/09/ 365-days-feb 8th-childhood revisited/

DP Daily Prompt: Toy Story Post by Ranu

Plastic soldiers – machine gun soldier. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I do have a toy story, I was not the sole owner. My two younger brothers and my younger sister owned it. I collected money from each one,we then set off to buy a toy in the store.We saw a variety of toys,we had to settle for one, the price was luckily, enough for us to be able to pay for it. It was a toy soldier with a machine gun ,was battery operated,whenever we turned on the switch the soldier would move his head and start firing.He was dressed in a green overall. We had hours of fun playing with it.It was our favorite toy,well it was the only one we had.

Now that I have seen and experienced the facts of life. I see there is no connection with our childhood toy and the real world we live in. I dislike wars,all the killing that takes place in the name of freedom,simply is distasteful to me. There are so many innocent lives lost, thinking about it makes me sick.

When I see someone with a gun it scares me. I remember I had an uncle who was a major in the army.He used to visit us quite often.One day he came in his military uniform, I told him to please come to our place wearing normal clothes( I mean civilian clothes).

DP Daily Prompt: Bookworm Post by ranu

The Kite Runner (film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The last book I read was Khaled Hosseini’s “The Kite Runner”. I selected it after reading the author’s two previous books,’A Thousand Splendid Suns’ and ,”And The Mountains Echoed”.

After reading his previous books,I knew I would like ,’The Kite Runner’ as well. I was not disappointed. I started reading the book immediately after my daughter bought the copy for me.I enjoyed reading about the kite flying competition.It brought back memories of my childhood.I loved watching my brothers flying the kite that they themselves put together.

At one point there was an incidence in the book,it made me stop and think,whether I wanted to continue. Something in me made me stick to it and carry on.

The story of two young kids,coming from a completely different background becoming good friends fascinated me. As I continued to read I began to understand how cruel human nature can be.Hosseini did such a wonderful job of portraying it. I instantly felt the human drama unfolding  right before me.I was no longer the person reading a story,but I was really watching these two young boys in person.

The story was more interesting when the boys grew up and one of them had a son.The father was killed. The son was sent to an orphanage.This is where his father’s friend,put his life in jeopardy to rescue his friend’s son. There were moments when it seemed the friend would not come out alive, but his sheer determination and his belief in the almighty,helped him to be successful.

I loved the book,it makes one relive certain things that happen in real life. The cruelty of one human being against another,just because of his status,his wealth and power has enabled him to carry on his evil ways. In the end, truth always triumphs.I would recommend everyone to read it.

“The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini Post by Ranu

First paperback edition book cover (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I read Khaled Hosseini’s, A Thousand Simple Suns and ,And The Mountains Echoed, each one was different. His first book,”The Kite Runner”,I finished reading an hour ago. My intention is not to criticize or applaud any part of the book.It is to write how I felt when I was reading it.

When I was a child I used to follow my two brothers to see what they will play next. It was not what I always thought,they changed their games ,on the basis of their own personal whim. One day I saw my brothers with some tissue paper,thread, little bamboo sticks. They were going to make their own kite and fly them. When they were playing with their kites,I thought it was a neat game. I helped them by holding the paper,I could not fly the kite,but loved watching my brothers.

When I finished reading, A Thousand  Simple Suns, everyone asked me is it better than the ,Kite Runner. I was not in a position to answer that question. Now that I feel I am, I have opted not to, but let them read and decide.

The kite Runner reminded me of those childhood days,when I watched my brothers make their own kite and fly them.  After reading the first few pages,I couldn’t decide whether I should continue or stop. I chose the former.I am not sorry I did.

It is commendable how Hosseini vividly portrayed some of the characters in the book. But then again we know there are good and bad people everywhere in this world.

There are three occasions in particular when my glasses kept fogging up. One was Sohrab’s earnest request to his uncle,not to send him back to the orphanage,the second one when Assef beat Amir mercilessly and Sohrab used his sling shot to save Amir. The third one when Amir prayed to God and promised he would never stop praying,will pay zakat,go for pilgrimage,he wanted God to save Sohrab . It was heartbreaking  when Sohrab said, ‘I want my old life back’.

I liked all his books. The Kite Runner, taught me about human nature and ultimately the lesson that if one sincerely asks God for help,he/she will not be denied!