Fevers make me nostalgic. I was recently down with fever. All I could do lying down all the time was read, sleep and regurgitate my childhood days. Poor 'Who' did get bored with my repetitions and finally I decided to write it down here. This is another snippet from my childhood memoirs.
My mom never permitted us to taste chewing gums and her theory was that children who chewed chewing gums often swallowed them and she had seen many kids at hospital who needed surgery to remove the chewing gum that got stuck to their intestine. Nevertheless the urge to taste this forbidden fruit grew stronger in me and as I grew I became more skeptical towards mom's story.
Finally I managed to get hold of a wrigley's gum at home. I guess dad left it, he often chewed them after smoking. It never occurred to me that dad always chewed gum and it never got stuck to his intestine. Well adults were superheroes and miraculously escaped every danger ( how foolish we were try this trick with kids these days and .... :) )
That sultry afternoon with the posession of a chewing gum I felt like a queen. I avoided my siblings who kept pestering me to join them for a game. I had a Cheshire cat's smile on my face which made my sister realize that I had a secret. I resisted all her charms and lucrative offers to guard my secret. I was scared of losing the gum in a tussle with her. She could go to any length to get the gum from me..... even call up mom at work and get me me warned.
My siblings soon lost interest in watching me smile and left for their game. I opened the wrapper underneath my blanket. I came out of the blanket like a turtle from the shell. I wanted to savour every moment, so I licked the gum, it was sweet and had a mint flavour. Mint was something new to me then. I began chewing th gum slowly first a little apprehensively and as time progressed like a pro. I felt so confident after a while, i remember picking up a book and slowing drifting into sleep.
As I woke some time in the evening , I felt the lingering taste of mint in my mouth. After a while I realized that the gum was no more in my mouth. I wanted to believe I had spit it in my sleep so I frantically searched my bed. I realized I had swallowed it but wanted to deny it because I had no idea what the consequences were. I was scared, overwhelmed with guilt. I wanted to talk to mom, apologize for what I had done. I even worried if I would be alive when mom returned. I watched my siblings play , I regretted not having joined them. I would soon leave them all forever. I could not imagine myself in a hospital, undergoing a surgery and dying. I decided to sleep again. Maybe death in sleep was painless or so I assumed.
I must have slept for quite some time because when I woke I heard mom's voice in the kitchen. I walked to her with amazement of being alive. She was her usual self that day so she ignored me for a while and when she did see me she scolded me for oversleeping. I told her my secret adventure with the chewing gum and my miraculous escape. Mom was silent for some time. She did not scold me as I expected but made me promise I would never chew a gum again.
I left the kitchen still confused about my survival, skeptical about mom's logic about chewing gums when mom said " Did you know that maggi caused cancer?" - " You kids should not have them ever".
Till date I hate maggi .
1 comment:
hahahaha.... I remember once when I got a shock from an exposed wire at home I thought I would die as a result. And I was afraid my family would be upset if they came to know. For more than a day I waited for death and then concluded it was a miracle that I had survived!
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