It’s school reopening time here. So we parents have no choice, but to brave the summer heat and stand in queues to collect books and uniforms for the next academic year. Luckily my daughter goes off for a summer camp so I did not have to drag her along in the heat. But there were so many little children in the queue – I guess their parents had no place to leave them. One would think that the children would wilt under this 40 degrees plus heat. Heck no! They were as curious, energetic and enthusiastic – as ever.
At first they clung to their mother or father shyly but then quickly got bored of being shy. Some went off to explore the surrounding garden. A little girl came back with a pink flower and a big smile. She was instantly chided by her mother for plucking it. The poor child’s face fell, but then she went off again to examine more of the flora – promising not to pluck any more flowers. A few more girls shyly followed her and a while later they all came back chattering happily with a handful of dried leaves and flowers and stones and sand.
A bored boy stood there making faces. He stretched his cheeks and dug his nose and twisted his eyebrows, stuck out his tongue…soon he had an interested audience. One little girl looked at him in open mouthed awe and admiration. Within minutes he had a mini fan following as a motley bunch of kids stood their trying to imitate him or – better still – do even better than him. They all looked so cute – seriously trying to make funny faces. I tried hard not to laugh.
A few kids started running around a light pole singing ‘ringa ringa roses’. When one pole got filled up with no more space for their little hands to hold - the second, third and fourth poles were occupied too. And their happy singing filled the air.
In another corner one boy had found a slope to play. Up and down up and down he ran. He too had a fan following soon. More kids came to run up and down with him. Soon they had a game going. The one who runs down the slope and stops the farthest wins. An energetic game began and a lot of screaming and laughing happened until one boy could not lay the brakes and ran straight into the watchman! The poor watchman was thrown face down and the boy fell on top of him. Some parents helped to pry the two apart and a livid, sweaty and messy watchman tried to salvage his dignity by screaming for order!
For a while there was a stunned silence as paranoid parents held their kids back. The queue moved ahead at a snails pace. It was boring when the kids were not doing their thing. It somehow seemed hotter as we had nothing else to focus on. Then one boy started kicking a stone. Another one kicked it back to him. Then another. And another. A boisterous game soon began!
This is why I love being around kids. They can never be still. Their minds are always on an overdrive. They have to explore, play, talk, ask, learn…all the time. Give them any situation and they have fun! It’s an incredible ability that we somehow lose as we grow up. Pity.
