When I was seven.,

When I was 7 years old, we used to live in a rented house in a semi urban area within the remit of Vizag.I was studying 2nd class then.I got 3 friends:Sai,Rama and Srikanth at home.They went to another schools,so we would play together in the evenings after school and on Sundays.Among these 3 Srikanth's house was adjacent to ours.He rarely came out to play,so I didn't remember much about him except for a small fray in which we both bullied each other about who had got the good name.Ha ha ha....I don't remember who won.

         When it comes to Rama and Sai, I really enjoyed their company.Rama was lissome and always had a fringe hair cut.Her house was a few yards off ours.There was a small open place in front of her house and we used to play there.When it rained water would pool in the center of that open place,making a small pond.We would leave paper boats in that little pond and observed while they were moving to the occasionally blowing wind.While playing I used to tease her by calling 'Pakija".She would go and complain to her mother.Aunt would come and say "Sekhar,it is not fair to call like that,never call her with that name".I would nod innocently 'Okay aunt,I'd never do that", like a good boy.Well the cycle would repeat.She was very crafty at catching butterflies and dragonflies.It was she who taught me how to catch them.She had been suffering from asthma at that age.Whenever I went to her house to call her out for playing she was seen sneezing into the pistol shaped plastic inhaler and taking some colorful mint like tablets.I found that activity very interesting and amusing.That I liked the puffing sound while she was using inhaler and wanted to do like that.Of course I never dared to ask aunt for that favor.

          Sai's house was an independent and old one surrounded by a fence.Creepers and bushes with different colored flowers coiled along that fence.Their house was like a little garden that I liked staying there. Sai's face always reminded me of an egg.He was stout but unstable in his movements.He couldn't run fast,couldn't talk clearly and when it comes to physical activity he was an under performer.I did always bet him about a running race and we ran to the other end of the ground which was ended up by a compound wall and returned to the starting point.Rama would sit and watch our race.I always won.I used to spend a lot of time at Sai's house.There we used to play a funny game with tamarind seeds.His mother would sit by,watch us and would guide Sai about how to play.Here also I used to claim all the seeds at the end.His mother would scold Sai for not playing well.I had to cross a bushy ground for reaching his house.That ground was full of yellow colored locusts.At that age I dreaded them so much as everyday I prayed to God,asking him to take away all those locusts from earth so that I could reach Sai's home without fear.

       In rainy season we three had a lot fun in catching the new off spring of frogs.Rama always feared to touch them but enjoyed watching while Sai and I were catching them.Sai was so blunt that he squeezed those tiny things unconsciously and most of them were dead in his hands.Some times monkeys did visit that ground and we would watch them from a safe distance,clapping,making loud cries and laughing at their funny gestures.It went like that for sometime.

          All of a sudden one day I woke up as usual in the morning and perplexed to find a Tiger's wall paper on the wall in front of me.I remembered that there was no such thing in my house.I wanted to get off the bed and fell to the floor.That bed was not ours.Ours was much smaller than that.Darn, that house was not ours.I was not in my house.But I was sure that last night I went into cozy sleep while listening to a bed time story told by Dad,who slept by my side.Where am I?I wondered.While I was sunk in my dilemma,that aunt came in with smiling face and told me that last night my brother got serious and couldn't breath well and was taken to hospital by my parents,Since I was fast asleep I was shifted to their house in sleep.Things got blur and I didn't remember much after that incident.We had moved to Vizag,brother was admitted in KGH.

     Rama might have been married to someone by now.Sai and Srikanth might be doing a job or some kind of business somewhere.I'm not sure whether they remember me....Whatever...I remember a small part of my past...well it is beautiful.

-By Viroti Somasekhar