TOY STORY

"What's this?"

"Hatchimals..."

I blinked and scratched my chin " Never heard of it"
"Don't you know what they are?!" Sanvi a 6 year old rolled her eyes looking at me in total disbelief and animatedly explained.
They are toys of hatching animals which comes in shapes of colorful egg and you crack them up to get miniature dolls of animals.
"Quite expensive too", her mom quipped from behind.
I was excited to watch her hatch an egg and looked at my best half.
"No way I am buying you toys" !!!

Well I know my age to play with toys is long gone, ahem, anyway these types of toys I mean. Got me thinking about the toys I played as a kid. There were no barbies or stuffed toys. Had a few plastic dolls and an occasional imported doll gifted by someone from the foreign land. The kitchen sets were a craze those days among girls, (do the kids nowadays play such games?!) plastic ones in different colours...tiny plates glasses bowls cooker gas stove spoons, loved to set them up neatly and pretend to cook, didn't realize that this is what I'll be doing after growing up and it's no longer fun nowadays! The steel kitchen sets were a luxury. If someone gifted me vibrant colored sets in wood that comes packed in a dried palm leaf box, I proudly showed to my friends and glowed under their appreciation. The sand used to be rice, the green leaves were veggies and sometimes if mom was in good humour, got a few grains of rice or a piece of carrot to play with. A single child with an over protective dad I wasn't allowed to go out to play so instead always had friends over to play with. Everyone setting up their own kitchen and playing together. We imitated our mothers.
I never demanded for more toys, happy with whatever was given on birthdays or some such special occasions. 

A few years ago I remember watching Fiona, my friends daughter, cook and serve special food to "Sweety", (the name she gave my best half) in her tiny plastic plate.

As I grew older I was interested in reading books...my parents were the average weekly magazine readers but my mom took an effort to hook me on to the reading habit. She wanted me to read and speak English like my accomplished relatives. As books were an added expenditure, which she wanted to avoid but unwilling to stop my quench for books, she took me to relatives or friends who had kids of my age with reading habit. It used to be a whole days process to catch a bus go to the other end of the city select a few books and once read, go to return them. However, immersed into my book, from the corner of my eye I could catch a glimpse of my mom's expression, looking adoringly at me! Hah the joys of motherhood ...
There was no lending library with English books nearby. Some of my relatives gifted me books on my birthday and they became my favourites.
I saved most of these books from childhood, in the hope that the reading DNA would be inherited by my children. I gave away these books to kids of relatives and friends as my DNA proved to be endangered!!
I make it a habit to gift books to children on special occasions. I love children who love reading.
Now I have a huge collection of books and a kindle too. I spend a lot of time reading books and accumulating them. Every time I travel to Chennai I carry the books I am done reading to store in my parents house. I was hesitant to change to kindle, but as we moved cities and countries Kindle seemed to be an intelligent option. Although I haven't stopped buying books much to my mom's consternation.

I have a huge "Tsundoku", the new word I came across and wanted to use!! Its of Japanese origin, buying books and piling it up unread! I have this compelling urge to buy books. Hope I get  to read all these in this lifetime.

Thank you mom for instilling this good habit in me.

PS .. It's payback time...I am busy piling up my mom's shelf, buying books to her taste and she's on a reading spree!!!