TALES OF OLD TIMES....

In my mind's eye I could visualise the by-gone childhood days. Adversity did not in any way affect our joys and cheerfulness, nor could it blunt our sense of contentment. In fact ,as the Bard had put it,"Sweet were the uses of adversity". We learnt to live within our means with the greatest amount of satisfaction.

Our wants were few and simple and even if one of them was fulfilled we were  greatly thrilled and  elated. As we understood the value of each and everything,we appreciated the difficulty of our parents in making both ends meet. So we never expected them to buy everything under the sun.

We made kites with old newspapers glued with 'sotrupparukkai'  (morsel of cooked-rice) and never thought of buying one from the shop. We used to give names to our kites ( I remember having named one such kite, "Vettri" (victory) which, ironically, was cut several times in the 'deals' that ensued that evening)

'Trade' was a very popular indoor game and we ourselves made it with lots of imagination and skill. The currency notes were made out of cigarette packs and the hard covers of old school copies(notebooks) were used for making the 'towns' and 'cities'. I hope people will not think I am bragging, if I say that our 'Trade' was far superior to the ones that were available in the shops. How I wish I preserved to show it my progeny.

We walked to our school merrily and wihout any complaints. Even now, my heart gets heavy when i recollect my brother's unfulfilled desire to own a second hand cycle all for himself at the time of his school final. I should say that it never had any effect on our happiness those days.

Ofcourse, Democritus was not an ordinary soul to say 'Happiness resides not in possession and not in gold, the felling of happiness dwells in the soul"