Woh Kagaz Ki Kashti

Yesterday I was listening to a Jagjit Singh song(oh dont worry I aint depressed in life). The song is titled “Woh Kagaz ki Kashti”. Its one of my favourites and the lyrics go something like this ..

Ye Daulat Bhi Le Lo, Ye Shohrat Bhi Le Lo
Bhale Cheen Lo Mujhse Meri Jawaani
Magar Mujhko Lauta Do Bachchpan Ka Saawan
Wo Kaagaz Ki Kasthi Wo Baarish Ka Paani

In English, it would mean something like

“Take away my wealth, Take away my fame,
Even take away my youth,
But please return the spring of childhood,
Those paper boats, and the monsoon rains”

Man i didnt know that the song sounds so lame in English. Anyways this started me off to think about the various other things that I miss about my childhood. And since everybody is in the list mood, I too have my own nostalgic list of childhood. So here it goes,

• Waking up late by the smell of mom’s cooking
• Eating my lunch while watching “Chutti Chutti” on Doordarshan
• Disturbing my sisters just to irritate them
• Listening to Jagjit Singh songs, complaining that he is such a bore and blaming my sis for forcing me to hear his songs.
• Pretending to be more sick for that extra pampering from mom
• Gobbling up packets of biscuit while mom is not around
• Waiting for that trip to Dairy Den and have my favorite Chocolate Chiffon icecream
• Going out on dinners and concentrating more on the ingredients than the right column
• Racing to the classroom after finishing the lunch
• Doing PT exercise as fast we can so that we can go and play football
• Shouting “Lapetiya” out of the school bus whenever we overtake other buses
• Playing cricket with cardboard and napkin ball in school after exams
• Roaming around on cycles and making up stories for each house that we see.
• Have the time of our life because we had all the time in the world.

And now as we grow up and time is slipping through our hands, we have responsibilities far heavier than cleaning the room. We have ambitions far bigger than beating Raju in the race tomorrow. We have lives far more complicated than the spring of childhood, devoid of those paper boats and the monsoon rains.