Dear God
I was strictly forbidden from spending time with my boy
cousins in particular, which was tough considering that they spent every holiday
by us. They stayed by Daddi but spent most of their waking hours by us.
Getting caught was a terrifying experience as we (Miya and
I) either got shouting or a hiding for our ‘misdeeds’. Both were equally bad so
I could never say I preferred the one over the other. The funny part now when I think back to the times we spent
together was that we did nothing ‘inappropriate’ with them as is common with
young kids of today.
We had fun. Nothing more.
We played TV Games together. Each taking turns until the one
lost all their lives. Duke Nukem, Mario Bro’s and Sonic proved an integral part
of our childhood.
If we weren’t playing TV games we were at our neighbourhood
park. Back then, there was an enormous wooden jungle gym and the slides and
swings were in usable conditions.You would find families seated on the benches watching their
kids enjoying a Sunday afternoon. Since we lived in close proximity we always
felt as if though the park was our territory. We weren't bullies so it wasn't
that we threw our weight around but between us we shared this common belief.
We’d spend hours on the swings screaming out the weirdest of
things whilst aiming to swing higher than the child next to us.
At night we would spend our time playing a game called ‘Ung-goosh.’
When I think about it now I realize how much the word ‘Ung-goosh’ sounds like
Anguish. This is funny because we brought our entire neighbourhood down with
the amount of noise we’d make during. None of our class friends had heard of
this game before and so we began sharing with them the rules of our special
game.
It’s pretty simple. Like the game red rover, you need people
standing on either side of the field (we played it in our old backyard which
could barely be constituted as a field).
1.
There must be an equal number of players. For
eg: If there’s 3 players on the one side there needs to be 3 players on the
other end as well.
2.
You need a soccer ball, preferably one that is
not pap (soft) but that worked for us too.
3.
One team has to throw the ball and the other has
to kick the ball. It’s a lot like cricket the difference being your feet is the
bat. Your name is called (by the throwing team) the ball is tossed in your
direction and you have to kick. If the opposite team catches the ball before it
touches the ground the entire team is out. If the ball is thrown at you whilst
you’re making a run (yes, you can make runs) you’re out.
4.
A stick is placed a little closer (to the team
kicking) than halfway. If the ball is not kicked further than this line the
person who kicked the ball is out.
5.
And where does ‘ung-gush’ come in you may ask?
Every time you kick the ball or make a run (which you can only do after you
have kicked the ball) you are required to say ‘ung-gush’ if you somehow forget
to say it and are blasted by the throwing team you are out.
Fun stuff.
Authors Note: I had initially penned my diary entries as 'Dear Diary', eventually I realized that my verbal conversations with God need not be limited to spoken words and so, I started writing to someone I knew 'gave a damn'. For the sake of this blog (and in wishing I had done this sooner) I started my journal entries with the right way this time round. God was listening all along anyway.
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