October 2, 2018
"Write something inspired by a playground or tree house."
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All our lives, whether we like it or not, have playgrounds in them, the literal ones where we played as kids or the imaginative ones where we play different adult games (no pun intended, unless you have a dirty imagination).
I am ambivalent towards playgrounds, when we were young, the 'park' would have a pair of swings, one slide, a see-saw and maybe a jungle gym. Not the we cared much, we could play anywhere and any game, even on the roads, one of the greatest advantages of living in a company colony. However, today with increasing population and increased vehicular traffic roads are not safe to walk on, let alone play. So we turn to the playgrounds which are build within the gated community.
They are nice, with a lot more options, twisting and turning slides, igloos, plastic elephants and zebras mounted on iron springs, tiny spin arounds, swings and see-saws. A good number of options and lot more kids than the playthings. I take my nephew sometimes, and while taking turns to keep an eye on him, I look around, groups of two or three mothers talking to each other, sharing parenting tips and exchanging recipes, lots of grandparents who come with the grand kids' nannies, few fathers who play ball with their kids, older kids skateboarding or cycling, it is a cacophony of shouts and voices. A babble to which my nephew adds to when at times he refuses to come home.
Watching the kids play also takes you back to your childhood and I wonder, where did those days go, did those moments happen and these are memories or were they mere fragments of dreams, as intangible as the days gone by? What happened to those carefree days where the only problem we had was that we could not play even after it got dark? Gone are those days where life was games and fun. Instead, today the playground is a chore, where you baby sit someone.
Playgrounds, noisy dirty little places, yet one where memories of childhood gone by stay and one that helps us build new ones.
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Word count 350
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365 Days- Book I
CasualeThis is my collection of writings for the three hundred and sixty five day writing challenge - where one has to write something daily, every day, for one whole year, based on the prompts provided - as part of an exercise to improve creative writing...
