My Moments # 4

A long gap between Moments 3 and 4 ... yes! but I have been quite busy with so many things. New semester, renovation of the house, shopping, new clothes etc etc. Have a busy day ahead of me too, but I had to write this before everyone forgets I was doing a series :)

Before I start, I am not too happy with my collage today i.e. I could be too creative with it. The image on the right is a collage of images from our time in Kharian and the second one is that of a Ghagra Choli my aunt brought for me from India. She and some of my other relatives visited India and also went to Aligarh to see the remains of my Grandfather's estate (The place she left as a small child) and visited other places like Delhi, Agrah and Jaipur. One of the very few childhood clothes still with me ... As I clearly remember this being brought to me when we were in Kharian, I decided to take a picture of it.

The time that I spent in Kharian was one of the best in my life. Carefree, happy and I have had the most fun there. My father was posted in Kharian from 1985 to 1989 ... four glorious years. As he is an Engineer, he was posted as the Garrison Engineer for the Kharian Cantonment. A Garrison Engineer for any Cantonment is a person who is responsible for managing everything i.e. electricity, water, gas, other amenities and all the construction being done by the Military.

I ended Moments # 2 by telling everyone that we eventually moved to a 2 story house allotted to my father by the Army. It was not a very big house, it had three rooms, drawing room, dining room, kitchen, a small store room and a terrace. But it had a reasonably big front lawn and a back yard where my mother used to grow vegetables and servant quarters behind the back yard. It was one of the best maintained houses in the vicinity.

This is the time, when my sister Hajra was born and we were so excited to have another sister to play with. I don't have memories to when she was born, but I do remember going to the hospital with my father and brother to meet the newborn.

Soon after moving to this house, we also started school. It was my brother's first school and second for me, my first being Kids Kampus in Lahore. As I was the first grand child after many years from my paternal side, I was a spoilt brat (Not in a bad way :)) and pampered. So, I was very talkative with my family and friends. But with strangers and not so close friends, I was very shy and quiet. My first few days at school, I remember quite vividly. I remember being punished by the teacher for talking in the class (something very rare for me). What was my punishment? My punishment was that the teacher made me sit next to a boy :) and the one I disliked the most ... haha!! I can never forget how embarrassed I was. I now wonder what school children have against kids of the opposite gender? We always used to have a girl's team and a boy's team for everything. The teams used to play together, but girls always used to team up against the boys.

Once, a boy in my class forgot his school bag at home and I wondered as to how he could have forgotten something as important as a school bag. Didn't his mother see him off in the morning? After a while, his father sent his bag with the driver. A point to note is that this school was the school where children of Army personnel used to study. Of course, Kharian being a Cantonment.

Our home was very near the school and my mother used to prepare fresh lunch boxes for us and our Orderly used to bring them along with cold Rooh Afza milk on his bicycle. We used to have our lunch there and then and then run away and play in the playground. It was my favorite playground (probably to-date). Lots of swings and a merry-go-round (which I never tried to sit on after my accident in Kids Kampus), and monkey bars, seesaw's and slides etc.

Coming back home, we always used to rest a while before doing our homework and running outside to play with the neighbors kids. After sometime, we made good friends with the kids of our next door neighbors and the house next to them. Three houses, 2 children each (me and my brother, two sisters in the next house and two brothers in the third). Three girls and three boys ... used to play in the evening while our mothers and father's used to stroll and walk keeping an eye on the kids. As my mother had a new born, she used to put her in a stroller and walk with her.

Once there we had lots of rain and all six of us just gathered in our garden and danced in the rain. My mother forcefully called us in and put the three girls under one shower and the three boys under the other, dried us and gave us snacks. After a while, as the rain had not stopped, we all sneaked to the next house and started playing and dancing in the rain again. This time our friends mother did the same with us as my mother had done and this time they all kept an eye on us. Yes, I remember this.

The time when my father got a tent pegged in our front lawn for us, so that we could play and the time when I got a wooden doll house as a present and my father constructed it and painted it for me.

Two houses were joined together and had a common wall. So, many times, we used to climb the walls of our terrace and talk to each other by sitting on the walls. We also had a common Hedge in the lawn which separated our lawns. We the kids had made a hole in that hedge to make a shortcut.

I remember the night when there was a major electricity breakdown and there was no electricity everywhere. My father (we call him Abba), was not home the whole night and we had to take out the mattresses on the terrace and sleep in open air. I don't think any of us slept, as there were too many mosquitoes and we ended up counting stars. I do remember seeing so many stars then. We hardy get to see any now ... wonder why?

I also remember when Abba used to wake us up in the morning for school by singing a song. How we used to look forward to the 7'o clock cartoon we waited for every day and we had to watch while having breakfast and then heading for school. Abba made sure we got up to watch the 5 minute cartoon. It was one of these everyday: Tom & Jerry, Yogi Bear, The chipmunks, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck or any of the Disney cartoons.

Looking back at these memories, I see how our parents loved us and how we were their whole world. I remember getting the best of everything. Whatever we asked for, we got it, never knowing if Abba could afford those things in his meager Army Salary or not. Many a times, if we saw something nice with friends, we used to ask for it and we used to get it. But, our parents never let things get to our heads and we had to work to be rewarded i.e. study hard and get good grades and then get the things we wanted.

I remember, once we got the nicest stationary boxes as presents as both me and my brother got very good grades and I even stood third in the whole class. Yes, we did well in school, our parents made sure that we do. Then we got BMX bikes. Mine was yellow and black and Safee's bike was red. We loved those and all we did on the evenings was to ride our bikes with our neighbor friends.

So many things and memories are coming my way ... but i think I have already written a very lengthy writeup. My moments 5 will also be dedicated to life at Khairan and maybe even the 6th in the series ... lets see ...

Previous blips in the series:

My Moments # 1

My moments # 2

My moments # 3


View Large if you want to see the collage up close.