Because I was just a little over five when we made our last trip to Finland, all these memories might appear jejune and unsophisticated to the reader. But for me they mark the time when the constraints surrounding adulthood did not prevail. It surrounds the immunity I enjoyed as a child. Maybe that's the reason for the clarity even though its been nearly three decades. Rather, the more recent ones are obfuscated with trifle inconsistencies each time I try recollecting them, but each one of these is as clear as a crystal.
6) These ones are taken outside my dad's workplace. It was at a walking distance from our house. The campus was of a moderate size with just two floors in each of the buildings. The thing that stood out in the campus was the array of modern art in the form of sculpts, scattered here and there around the buildings. The one in the pics was an obelisk covered in mirrors on all its sides. Unfortunately I do not have any pictures of the rest; not even of my favorite sculpt which happened to be a green colored hand!
7) Särkänniemi, my childhood 'Disney Land'; I used to wait for that one day during spring/summer when we would make that trip, just like how kids wait for Christmas. I first saw dolphins at Särkänniemi and fell in love with sea creatures (I am still petrified of them coming in contact with me; we share a long-distance relationship ;) ). Särkänniemi has an observation tower that was visible from the terrace of our building. Such a huge fan was I of the place that I used to make trips to the terrace during winters, just to see the tip of the tower and glean some happiness out of the knowledge that come spring and I would get to visit the place (Silly nai! :) ). The picture was taken in the zoo that is adjacent to the tower. At the base of the tower, outside the zoo, was a deep pit with seals and right at the entrance of the zoo, on one side was a little blue tub with tiny turtles swimming around energetically and on the other side were little miniature house-like blocks with bunnies snuggling, their little red noses peeping out.
8) My sister is less than three months old in this picture, when she made her first trip to Finland. Once we had reached the Bombay airport and were just about to get done with the immigration formalities, my mom realized that my sister was missing a sock. It was a woolly little white thing with blue bunnies all over it. I remember her retracing her steps and dragging me along looking for that sock which alas, we weren't able to find! This picture though is taken on the train from Helsinki to Tampere after our flight.
9) I was the proud owner of two dolls; one which I had picked myself (the yellow and blue haired weirdo in the picture), the other thrust on my by some kind friend (It was a clown-like red guy whom I never took to ;) ). The blond in the picture, who happened to be a good friend till this play date, turned foe because we kept fighting over the same weird doll.
10) On the fourth floor of our building lived Kovvikka, a friend of mine. She was a couple of years older than I and had six or seven siblings, the names of most I can't seem to recollect. The second from the youngest was named Cookie. We all used to gather every evening and have a good time in the park and the sand-pit and go home covered from head to toe in sand. You could literally build a sand castle of your own with just the amount of sand that my curly hair would retain. Then one fine day I returned home, not covered in sand, but in blood. In a argument over whose turn it was on the swing, Cookie, in a fit of rage had flung a small rock right at me which happened to hit my head. I didn't feel any pain nor was I aware that I was bleeding profusely. Kovvikka however gauged the situation pretty well and knew instantly that her sister was in deep trouble and so was I, but in a different way. She grabbed my hand and rushed not to my home but hers. Her mom bathed and dressed my wound and then almost trembling all the way took me to my mom who didn't react at all once she saw that I was fine. In fact I remember insisting that she let me go back to play and after some weak protestations she just tied a scarf around my head and let me go. Cookie wasn't there when I joined the jingbang again but she did turn up in some time with her mom. Poor thing must have got a good thrashing for she was all red-eyed and hichuppy. She kept saying something that her mom was egging her to repeat when I failed to understand. Finally I just said o.k. after the kid had repeated it at least some eight times. Turns out she was saying "Forgive me", a word I was unfamiliar with having only heard of 'Sorry'! Again, I do not have a picture of Cookie or Kovvikka or any of her other 6-7 siblings :(
And I can go on and on. Maybe I shall find ways to incorporate the other remaining anecdotes in posts that are not exclusively Finnish. I so look forward to going back but at the same time I am more than apprehensive at the thought of it. Going back would mean looking at all of this with a fresh pair of eyes. Everything will have changed. And that would mean applying another coat of paint on my canvas of memories. And if the present is antithetical to my past, the coat will be an opaque one and will forever eclipse my innocent flashback cosmos!
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