My Earliest Memory

It feels nice to ride through memories, sitting in this Lazy chair of mine.

What was my earliest memory? I remember that I was living in a very big house. There were a lot of people in the house. There was Great grandmother; there were my grandfather and his brother; there were grandmothers, my father, his brothers, sisters and cousins and of course my mother, to take care of me. I was the eldest in my generation and lot of love and affection happened to be showered upon me. Yes, I was aware of it and did play upto it, I suppose.

A particular incident in my earliest memory may be one of the bus travels with a little bit of adventure. I am not sure if it is really a memory or just conjured up visions, listening to my aunts as they indulgently talk about it.

‘Just can’t imagine what would have happened if we couldn’t find him……. It was almost for half an hour he was lost, you see!’ One of the aunts would tell a guest during the afternoon gossip sessions.

‘My goodness!’ The guest would shake her head expressing the shock and disbelief!

‘Don’t tell anything with your black tounge!’ One of the grandmothers would admonish the offending aunt, ‘he ran after the bus only for about 2 minutes!’

The adventure part started getting more and more exaggerated with every narration.

The incident was like this. I was about 2 years old. We were going to my mother's house.  Usually, once a year we used to go to mother's house (ammath, as we call in Malayalam) and all the cousins from my mother's side will assemble there during the same period. Those were some of the most fun-filled days during my childhood, which I definitely remember, not as conjured up visions, but as real.

So, my father, mother and me – the under-2 child started off to ammath, to go by the first bus. As we set out, I was thrilled about the journey in the bus. And I was very annoyed to have got down from the bus at the destination. When my parents took their eyes away for a moment (I can't believe it is true here because they couldn't have done it - taken their eyes away I mean. I was a handsome, adorable child - you see.) I ran after the bus and got lost for a few seconds before my father ran after me and got hold of me. However, the whole episode caused a commotion. The period that I got lost for and the scare it caused to various people, increased in scale of proportion as months went by.