Mad Childhood Memories - Squabbles and Medals

When I think of childhood, my memories are drenched with laughter for the whole lot of fun I had with my sisters, Jaya and Sappu. The distance of time makes me look at our antics with fond humour. However my childhood self did not look so kindly at all those nonsensical fights that made up most of my childhood memories. Each fight was serious, each grievance vital and life-defining! :D

For instance, there was the time when Sappu and I would fight over every single piece of furniture in the house. If there were two sofas, two footstools, two vessels or even two tumblers, they were divided equally between us. (Jaya somehow remained detached on her lofty perch from where she looked down at us lower beings squabbling over petty materialistic things. She remains unchanged. :D) It reached a point where we divided a chocolate by using a ruler, centimeter by centimeter.

Sappu and I - Image Courtesy ©Jayashree Nair

Encroachment on one’s property was frowned upon with utmost seriousness and often would result in fights to the finish. The scratch-bite fight fest of course meant each of us sported fantastic long scratches on our arms and other assorted bruises. All of which were accounted and reported to our long-suffering father, home for his lunch break. He had stopped being alarmed a long time ago and had taken to asking ‘So what is the medal tally today?’ So perhaps some (okay, most) of our medal tally was preening about the wounds sustained through the day. But I guess for our poor parents, bogged down with three children, an extended family and all the responsibilities, the quarrels meant we were occupied and out of their hair. :P I guess siblings who fight become tight because even with all our squabbling, it was always the three of us against the world aka other playmates! :D