Reminisces of a Mischievous Me

Though I have been the only child of my parents, I was blessed to have a very cute set of cousins, an elder sister and a younger brother staying just next door. We played teacher- teacher every Sunday afternoon and our sister Maya was always our teacher and we both her students. She was a very sincere child and never ever did any mischief. Whereas me and my cousin Kedar were the notorious ones..we always ended up in a soup!

One such Saturday afternoon Kedar and I were playing together, when I decided to open my piggy bank. We broke it open and found that I had full seven rupees in it. We were both excited...I asked him, "r u hungry?" he nodded and I said, "I will take you for a treat...garam garam samosa" i could see his mouth watering with the thought of tasty Samosas..."But to get to the nearest samosa vendor we have to cross the big highway! how will we do it?"he asked with sadness. I said "Dont worry, you hold my hand tight and I will make you cross the highway and we will be fine, but dont tell our parents OK!"He agreed timidly, I am sure the only thing driving him to rebel against our parents was the delicious samosas!

So at 4 pm on that Saturday afternoon, we set out together to eat samosas with 7 rupees clutched in our small hands. We saw my father coming back from work at a distance and we quickly hid in an adjacent building so that he wouldn't see us. As we neared the highway my lil bro took my hand and held it firmly in his little palm. I felt proud to be a big protective sister to him and beamed with pride! Just then i saw his mother returning from work and also crossing the highway from the opposite direction. I pulled him behind other people crossing from our end such that she wouldnt notice us at our venture. But in my heart, I was all scared that we might get a scolding.. Absorbed in my fears and excitement about the venture, we reached the Janata Farsan house where the mouth watering samosas and raw papaya chutney waited for us! We finished 2 samosas each within no time and were proud of our achievement!

My little brother started his inhibitions about the venture as soon as he had taken his last bite of the samosa. He said, "Pooja, lets take the rickshaw so that we can reach home faster." I was almost ready to say of course, when i realized that we were left with only 1 rupee!

I somehow cajoled him to walk back home and we started walking back on that sunny afternoon. Mid-way, my brother told me his little legs were aching. i said," dont worry, lets go to our Raikar kaka's house (my fathers friend) who stays right here. You can rest for sometime and then we will go home. And i will tell kaka to inform dad that we are safe in his house."

He agreed and we reached our Kaka's house to find that both uncle and aunty were shocked and surprised to see us there all by ourselves at that hour of afternoon. We of course did not inform them about our samosa venture instead we told them that we were missing them and hence decided to spend sometime with them. I am sure they must not have believed us but they were too sweet to let us know that. Kaka called my dad and told him that we were with him. I was relieved and thought now we could play without any tension. So we played at his house till our hearts content and he dropped us at our homes at 7.30 pm.

As we entered our houses we saw  my father and Kedar’s mother fuming at our respective houses. They took charge of us individually and scolded us so much that my little brother started weeping. My father asked me to fetch his belt so that he could hit me. I brought it and took his beating without saying a word.

What a day it was....till date i only feel sad for my little innocent brother who had to face the music of my adventurous plan! Our parents now laugh about it and always remind us of our stupid samosa venture...Twenty years later, when Kedar and I see our little sons playing together, we wonder if they will do such ventures as well?

Truly, childhood is the most wonderful time in our lives and this is one of the many incidents that makes me nostalgic about the beautiful era!