Idyllic Childhood Memories

One of my favourite memories is triggered whenever I hear Simon and Garfunkel's "Scarborough Fair".

Imagine this: A hot Indian summer, the sounds of crows cawing in the newness of early morning while I smelled that delicious aroma of fresh bread toasting (and eventually burning because my Grandma burnt toast - it's one of the call signs that I associate with her).

My parents were in Bahrain and I remained back in India with my Grandma. My family home, at that stage, was with her. Grandpa had passed away recently and it was, essentially, just her and me. She was a young and vibrant Grandma and we had a special, special bond. I know my Aunty Noreen and Uncle Denzil were around but my childhood recollections have them in fleeting moments.

The summer of this song and The Doors, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Simon and Garfunkel take me back to an idyllic childhood, spent lazily in the fabulous company of my Grandma. Times were spent laughing, shopping, being together.

We had two dogs - daschunds by the name of Cheeky and Poppet - who were scared of me. I was somewhere around 8-9 years old and the peaceful harmonies of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel decorated the moments of retrieving mangoes out of the rice box, where they were kept, and eating them deliciously with juice running down to our elbows.

My Aunt's friends would come over and there was relaxed laughter in the air. There were colours of tie-dyed t-shirts and handle bar moustaches, cheesecloth tops and bell-bottoms paired with leather open sandals, long hair and the Mamas and Papas.



The doors of my Grandma's house were always open. I have no recollection of the realities of adult life because, as a child, it was a joyful and carefree childhood.The front yard was lined on the right side looking toward the road with a mango tree, a custard apple tree, a yellow guava tree and a pomegranate tree. On the left were other guava trees and a small rockery that housed a family of frogs who sang to us in the evenings with the crickets as people returned to their homes for dinner.


In other parts of the world, my new baby sister was being born and the Vietnam war was being fought in vain, but in my little cocoon of childhood, I was enchanted - yes enchanted - by the music of Simon and Garfunkel, peach melba and vanilla icecream with a wafer from Fatima's, Sunday matinee sessions of Laurel and Hardy, Bud Spencer  and Terrence Hill and Charles Bronson spaghetti westerns, playing Monopoly and red tartan Keds with white shoe laces.

What a beautiful time in my life......it is filled with the squinty-eyed and crooked smile of my beautiful Grandma who always found laughter in every day.