Last night, when I lay in my bed, I remembered the innocent days of my childhood. I had a best friend named Sarmad, with whom I spent all free time. We used to play, study and even buy daily groceries from the market together. Sarmad was very intelligent and cooperative.

In our neighbourhood, an old man named Ramzan chacha also lived. He would often tell us amazing stories and buy us toys. We loved Ramzan chacha very much. Those were the times when there was less pollution, our village was beautiful with ample green fields and fruit orchards. We had lots of open spaces to play cricket, football and other games, or fly a kite in the evening.

Sometimes, we would go for long walks and explore far-off fields in search of bird nests and unique flowers. We loved the baby birds and used to watch how their mother would bring food for them. Those were innocent pleasures.

On the east side of our village, there was a pond where we often went for fishing. It was difficult and tricky to fish there, but it was so much fun! I still can’t forget when we caught a fish, and both of us gathered wood and then cooked it in the open air by sticking the fish in an iron rod. It tasted amazing!

Almost everyone in their childhood is daring and curious, and so were Sarmad and I. We had that heard that a village, quite far from ours, was very beautiful and green. So, we decided to visit it and thought we would be back before sunset, so we didn’t tell anyone and started walking towards it.

Little did we know that it would take a couple of hours to reach there. By the time we arrived there, we were too tired. But we were surprised to see the village. It was beautiful, very clean and green. There were mango and other fruit orchards. We wondered around and enjoyed ourselves for a very long time and also made friends there. We were so caught up in the fun that sunset arrived without us realising it. Seeing it getting dark, both of us got scared because it was the first time that we had come so far from our village, and now going back in the dark from a new place could be a challenge. There was a chance that we could get lost. Moreover, we knew that our parents would also be worried about us.

Without thinking further, we asked a few people about the shortest way to reach our village. They gave us the directions and we started walking. We were scared but, thankfully we didn’t get lost on the way and reached home safely. However, our parents were extremely worried, they scolded us badly. We apologised to them and they rightfully restricted us from going far from home again and we understood it.

Days passed, our fun didn’t stop, we were free of stress and had boundless energy for outdoor fun; perhaps because there was no techy gadgets available to children.

The sad part is that I, along with my family, left the village and moved to the city where I continued my studies. However, Sarmad could not continue his studies due to financial constraints, which I learned sometime later. Despite the distance, we remained in touch. He is still in the village and is spending a peaceful time with his family there, but I am sad that he could not continue his studies.

I am currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in IT from a reputed university. We don’t meet often, but whenever we meet, we recall all the beautiful adventurous moments we spent together.

Published in Dawn, Young World, March 2nd, 2024