This is how we Indians grew up in East Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania . . .) Our childhood was the best . . . Our love and respect for our parents was second to none and our respect for our teachers was in our genes. We gladly looked after our younger brothers and sisters without a fuss. We attended temples, gurdwaras, churches, and prayed regularly. In essence, we enjoyed life to the full. . . With sincere thanks to the original writer . . . How true and so well articulated. To all the wonderful kids who were born in Africa and survived the 1940s, 50s, 60s, 70s. ................................... We had mothers who did not check our blood pressure every few minutes. There were no nurses or doctors to pamper us all the time... Then after that trauma, our baby cribs and bassinets were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes we had no helmets, not to mention the risks we took hitchhiking or going out on our own. As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or airbags. We sat on each others laps for Gods sake. Riding in the back of a station wagon on a warm day was always a special treat. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this. We would share a dosa; dip a chapatti into someone elses plate of curry without batting an eyelid. We ate jam sandwiches or pickle on bread and butter, raw mangoes with salt that set our teeth on edge, and drank orange squash with sugar and water in it. We ate at roadside stalls, drank water from tender coconuts, ate everything that was bad for us from mungfalees to bhel puri to bhajias and samosas, but we werent overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING! We would leave home in the morning and play all day during the holidays, we were never ever bored, and we were allowed freedom all day as long as we were back when the streetlights came on, or when our parents told us to do so. No one was able to reach us all day by mobile phone or phone. And we were O.K. We would spend hours making paper kites, building things out of scraps with old pram wheels or cycle rims, inventing our own games, playing traditional games called hide and seek, kick the can and rounders, ride old cycles and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem. We swam with an inflated tube, which we got from somebody who was replacing their car tyres. We ran barefoot without thinking about it, if we got cut we used tincture of iodine on it, which made us jump. We did not wash our hands ten times a day. And we were OK. We did not have Play stations, Nintendos, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no I-Pods, no internet or internet chat rooms, no TV, period. We did not have parents who said things like what would you like for breakfast, lunch or dinner. We ate what was put in front of us and best of all, there were never any leftovers. We polished the lot. WE HAD FRIENDS, great friends, whose parents we called Uncle and Aunty, and we went outside and found them! We fell out of trees numerous times, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no compensation claims from these accidents. We ate fruit fallen on the ground that we shook down from the tree. And we never washed the fruit. We had a bath using a bucket and mug and used Lifebuoy soap. We did not know what conditioners meant but used coconut oil instead. We made up games with sticks and tennis balls. We rode cycles everywhere and someone sat on the carrier or across the bar to school or the pictures, not cinema, or you walked to a friends house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them! Not everyone made it into the teams we wanted to. Those who didnt had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! The idea of a parent bailing us out if we naughty at school was unheard of. They actually sided with the teachers! This generation of ours has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever! The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL ! ============================ To all those of you who have had the good luck and good fortune to grow up as kids in East Africa, those were the good old days, my friend!
Posted on: Thu, 04 Dec 2014 21:55:06 +0000