Since my childhood, my parents have constantly reminded me how good the old days were. Even now as I am growing up they remind me every now and then how much better their own childhood was. I usually follow the policy of no comments whenever such a topic comes up, because as likely or not, our opinions are going to differ. I personally think that my childhood has been quite good, even though I was sometimes a bit lonely being an only child with working parents. I since the start have been kind of a book worm. At school I had plenty to do and time passed nice and quick with my buddies. But whenever I was at home alone, I would not quite know what to do. But then I discovered novels and voila! I had discovered a new world. The best part about it was that it was my world and I could imagine anything I wanted. I imagined the characters of the various book according to my will and grew fond of them. And you can easily guess the rest. I read a lot of novels and still do. But this story is not about me. A few days ago my mother told me some tales about her childhood. The way she told me about those days and especially the glazed look in her eyes intrigued me. I became more curious. Even she was surprised by my sudden curiosity. But nonetheless, she told me and I listened carefully. Only then I realized that maybe her childhood was not as boring as I thought it would be. I would like to tell you that this is not going to be normal story, it would be more like a memoir passed down to me by my mother and I present it to you unedited and as it was told to me.

Our story begins in 1990, or to say more specifically, the summers of 1990. In a small village in Madhya Pradesh, there was a small government school, the only one in that village. It was the last day of school and when the last bell of the day rang, there was such an uproar that even the teachers were not able to stop it. All the students rushed out in a frenzy as if the summer holidays would be cancelled if they stayed in school any longer. At long last the day of their freedom has come, a two and a half months long holiday. Among the children there was also a little girl, Vimla. She was 10 years old. She walked with her own friend circle. She was highly excited for the summer holidays, but she also was a bit melancholy. She would not be able to meet her friends for entire holidays and how bored she would be without them. Anyways there were still a lot of things that Vimla could do. Vimla was not exactly lonely, she had five siblings. And also she had her comics. The prospect of reading different comics in the summer afternoons cheered her up. She went home merrily skipping and running at times. It was a beautiful summer afternoon. 'And why should it not be, it is the first day of holidays after all', thought Vimla. On reaching home, her mother casually inquired about how the last day of school was. 'It was alright, mom', replied vimla while eating her food. After quickly finishing up, she went right outside in the yard and as she had expected all of her siblings were there. Among the five siblings, vimla was fourth. The eldest among them was vimla's sister, sadhna. Right after her was rani, vimla's annoying sister. Rakesh was the third in line, and being the elder brother, he was the one with the most responsibilities. Last but not the least was vikas, vimla's little brother and the prince of the family. His nickname was Vicky and no one addressed him by his full name, not even in school. Sadhna as usual was cleaning the yard. She never participated in their games, for her they were all a waste of time, and in the mean time she would help her mother by doing some chores. She thought of herself as high and noble because she did not play "childish" games. But vimla simply thought she was being stupid as no one in their right mind would do household chores willingly. Rani, rakesh and Vicky all were playing cricket. Rani was batting and rakesh was bowling. As usual Vicky was fielding and already vimla could see that if he had to field any longer, he would throw a tantrum. When rani spotted vimla, she exclaimed, 'Oh my God! It is our one and only queen. Can you believe it! Oh please forgive my dear queen, please do not punish me' and she began doing salaams. Vimla watched all this with a bored expression, 'old same rani' she thought and then joined in on the act and said in a deep voice, 'You are forgiven only on the condition that you let me play with you, my little servant', and all of them burst laughter, even sadhna joined in. vimla quickly snatched the bat from rani and began batting. As they had no real wickets, they simply considered the wall as the wicket. The ball they were playing with was made out of rags. They had simply picked up some old rags lying here and there, and rolled them up and tied a knot tightly. The reason they were not playing with a tennis ball was that they had already lost more than five balls and when they lost their last ball their mother had said furiously, 'no more balls for you. I have never seen mischievous children in my life. Do you think balls grow on trees?' After that none of them had the courage to even mention balls in front of their mother. So they had to do with the makeshift ball. The whole afternoon, they played cricket. After a while vimla got bored and left the game. She then read her comics. When evening came, she waited eagerly for her father. She was proud of the fact that she was the beloved of her father. Her father was a policeman, and sometimes he came late from work, but vimla knew that he would come on time today as he had promised to take her to the town carnival that had been set up a week ago. When her father came, vimla rushed forward to help him. He said on seeing her, 'how was your day, Gudiya? Are you excited for the carnival?' Vimla replied, 'I am more than excited, daddy, please hurry up, we should go their early and we will be able to enjoy more'. Her father said, 'sure we will go as soon as possible. Now rush to your mother and tell her to get ready. We are going to go now. We can eat something there, so there's no need for her make dinner'. Vimla did just that and readied herself as well. When all of them were ready, they locked the door of their house and started walking towards the carnival. The carnival was set up on the nearby cricket field, which also happened to be the largest field in the village. Major events were almost always conducted there. In ten minutes, they had arrived there. The carnival was in contrast with the dark night sky of the summers. There were so many bright colors that Vimla was stunned. Their father noticing the children's excitement said, 'now all of you, there are a lot of people, don't wander off alone, okay?' Still mesmerized the children chorused, 'Okay'. As they entered the carnival grounds, vimla noticed the salty scent of peanuts and popcorns. It was so inviting that vimla who was still full from her lunch began to feel hungry. But there were more important things to do. This year along with the other carnival rides there was also a giant merry-go-round. Vimla had only seen it in pictures and now as she saw it in real, she longed to ride it. Rani it turned ut was also thinking the same thing. Rani gave vimla a look that said, 'are you thinking what I am thinking'. Vimla gave a slight nod. Rani took vimla aside and whispered to her quietly, 'I am pretty sure that mother will not allow us to ride the giant wheel, she considers that thing a monstrosity, we should ask dad'. Vimla replied, 'yeah but we cannot allow mother to overhear our plans or she will put a stop it'. So quietly they went to their father and on the pretext of holding his hands, they asked for permission to ride the wheel. Her father looked at them and looked at the giant wheel and after a while said, 'okay but on one condition, you will have to take sadhna and rakesh with you, and I will distract your mother'. He quickly gave the cash required for the ride. he then took the hand of his wife and took to her to cloths stall. She asked, 'hey, what about the children, they will get lost'. He simply said, 'don't worry dear, they are with Sadhna and I am pretty sure that they will not get lost. Now look at that beautiful dress, you should buy it!' and with their mother successfully distracted, the four children sneaked to the giant wheel. Vimla was thrilled at their luck. Even sadhna was excited. Rakesh was positively jumping on the spot. Though rakesh was afraid and nervous, he boasted, 'you all should be careful. This is your first time on this ride. Do not start screaming when you are at the top' to this rani replied, 'now don't get over your head, rabbit. This is as much your first time as it is ours, ok. So shut up' rakesh opened his mouth to argue but did not say anything because their buggy had arrived. All four of them went into it one by one. Inside the buggy, there were two seats facing each other. Vimla and rani sat on one side while sadhna and rakesh sat on the other side. The buggy was covered on all sides with a wired mesh. With a rattling sound the giant wheel began to rotate. As it ascended, vimla felt more and more nervous. Their buggy reached the top eventually in what felt like a really long time. When vimla looked outside. She saw the entire carnival. All the different shops, the rides and everything was visible from there. She could even see the views beyond the carnival. The village looked blissfully quite outside the boundaries of the carnival. To vimla it was as if all the people of the village have come to the carnival and those that have not come are sleeping in their own houses. Sadhna mouthed, 'Wow' as she also looked outside. Vimla could see the carnival lights reflecting in Sadhna's eyes. At that instant all of them were together but alone at the same time. They were lost in their own thoughts. Then, Vimla braced herself for the downward journey. But suddenly, all the lights of the carnival went out, in an instant. The lights of the giant wheel also went out. It was suddenly dark all around them. The darkness forced them unpleasantly out of their peaceful reverie. Rakesh stupidly blinked twice as if he did not know why he was here. Rani broke the silence, 'What is happening?' she sounded scared. Vimla replied uneasily and nervously, 'I don't know, maybe there is a power outage of some sort'. Rakesh moaned, 'now what will we do guys we are stuck in this wretched wheel'. Sadhna was the only one who had kept her senses. She said, 'there is no need to worry guys. I am pretty sure that the power will be back on.' Vimla looked at her gratefully. Because of her they had stopped panicking. At the topmost point of the wheel, it was eerily quiet. There was not a sound except that of the wind. The wind was howling and that also scared them. 'What are we to do if the power does not come back? Will anyone come to save us?' these were the thoughts that troubled vimla. There was a sudden gust of wind and the buggy swayed to one side and began to oscillate slightly. The panic that they had forgotten came back with more force. Rakesh began crying. Rani wailed, 'I do not want to die. I am too young to die. Please God save me, please, please'. Even Sadhna seemed distressed. Vimla did not know what to do, so she began standing up. Vimpla had brought a purse with her and she had given it to sadhna so that she would not lose it. In the purse there also was a small hand torch. She quickly retrieved and sat down on her seat as the buggy swayed more dangerously. Rani whispered, 'what are you doing, do you want to fall to your death Vimla'. Rani was hysterical by that point. Vimla did not reply but simply turned on the torch. There was a little light but it was enough for the four of them. Rakesh was not crying now but there were tear marks on his face. Vimla said, 'guys, do not panic. I think we should sit down on the floor between the seats and this way the buggy will be more stable.' Rani argued at once, 'how do you know? I do not think we should move from our places'. Vimla quickly said, 'I just know, if we all sit together, we will be able to help each other and the buggy will not move much, just listen to me this time'. And as if to agree with vimla the buggy swayed more dangerously. Then slowly Sadhna stood up and then sat at the floor of the buggy and said, 'I agree with Vimla we should all be together'. Rakesh sniffed and then he also sat down besides Sadhna. Vimla sat down after him. Finally rani also joined them. They placed the torch in the middle and dim yellow light made their faces visible. All of them had the same scared look on their faces. Then Rakesh slowly began to hum a song that their mother used to sing to them when they were little. It was their bedtime song. As Rakesh hummed, Vimla joined in and began to sing,

"Golden slumbers kiss your eyes, Smiles awake you when you rise. Sleep pretty darling do not cry And I will sing a lullaby, lullaby, lullaby, lullaby."

Slowly one by one, rani and sadhna also joined in on the song. And all of them began singing it. Rakesh listening to this song felt his fear fading away. Rani, vimla and sadhna also felt the same way. Slowly they ended their song. Now there was a comfortable silence between them. Vimla gazed upward at the night sky and through the wired mesh, she saw that sky was full of stars. She was once again mesmerized by their sight. It was a clear summer night, and looking at the night, she was lost in them. She was for a moment in the night sky, skipping and running from one star to another, she was an angel, completely free. That moment felt infinitely long to Vimla and yet the same time very short. But suddenly, the lights of the carnival came back on. They heard the giant wheel coming back to life. They got back to their streets. As their buggy came down, they hurried out of it and never in her life had Vimla felt so happy to feel the ground under her feet. Just as they came out, they spotted their mother and father right outside. Her mother looked as if she was crying, and her father looked deeply worried. Even Vicky who had been with his mother, was crying. They reached out towards their parents and embraced them. Their mother looked up and said, 'Thank God, thank God my children are safe'. Her father looked highly relieved and joked, 'thank god you all are okay! Your mother had almost murdered me'. At this they all laughed and it they laughed on and on because they were all relieved and happy to be back again. After all this the carnival had lost some of its charm for them, and they went back to their home. It turned out that the power had gone for only fifteen minutes. But for Vimla it was much longer than that. She once again recalled the sight of the stars and felt happy. It was a sight that she would never forget in her entire life. As they reached home, rani began boasting her own bravery before them all. Sadhna, Vimla and Rakesh burst out laughing at this and rani joined them, blushing. That night when she slept Vimla dreamt of the starry night and a smile came on her face while sleeping. This was how Vimla's last day of school was.