MEMORIES by Ummesalama Lokhandwala

“We don’t remember days, we remember moments.”

I was born in India and my parents were so happy to see me. My mom had a wonderful time.


Months passed by and I still vividly remember my third birthday when I turned three on 28th August. I had worn a wavy white frock which my grandmother had gifted me. And they had ordered my favourite cake with naughty Mickey Mouse sitting on top of it. But afterwards I heard my mum say that “no one is coming to the party as it is Saturday, everyone is out to enjoy the weekend.

The ball of fire disappeared and the darkness of the night dawned. Then suddenly when my mum took me out of the room and into the hall, and when I saw eyes blinking in the darkroom, at this time I was astonished with my eyes wide open. The lights switched on and I saw all my family members and relatives, and I saw my birthday cake which was beautifully decorated and a candle on it.

I was really happy as I celebrated my birthday but I felt bad because on my birthday my dad was not there. He missed the best day of his life. His own daughter’s birthday!!! Happily and merrily we cut the cake and everyone sang the birthday song, I blew the candle and made a wish.

I got some amazing gifts; I shared some of the toys with my younger sister when she was born.

I still remember the days when I was fascinated with riding a scooty, I wanted to go out on a scooty, but my mom didn’t allow me to go. Then I requested her to go and she allowed me. I went with my aunt. I was so excited as for the first time I was going to ride on a scooty. So, I changed my dress and went down running.

After a while my aunt bought a scooty, I sat and went for a ride. We took a couple of rounds in our society but in the last round a tragedy happened with me, I was going to do a stunt which I had seen on the television. I jumped off the scooty when my aunt was riding it.

Then my noticed my absence. She stopped the scooty and turned around; I had fallen down and my face bled profusely. My family members came down when they heard the news; I had fallen and was bleeding. They took me home and first aid was given to me. Then I slept off.

When I woke up in the evening I could see scars on my face, I was really hated that because whenever I would go for a bath the scars would really burn and I would scream loudly. Then, day by day my scars started vanishing. Finally all my scars got vanished; I was happy that I had normal face back and I could go down and play with my friends and cousins. This was one of the traumatic moments, I can never forget.

Like this I had a similar tragedy when I was eight years old. My mum and my family members went off to sleep. Secretly, I went to my friend’s house who used to live on the first floor of the building. My friend’s name was Abdeali. He was a curious boy. I went to play with him at his house. We used to climb on the sides of the door turn by turn.

But suddenly, one day when I went to play with my friend and it was my turn to climb up, in the middle, I just lost my balance and fell down on my chin. I could see my chin’s inner parts, when I touched it, it would burn, and we ran to our house to show my mum, then to the clinic.

When the doctor took the needle and thread, I would not let him stitch, and then he calmed me down and said “close your eyes,” I did not feel what was going on and when I opened my eyes it was finished. We returned home.

At last I would conclude that certain memories make us laugh and certain memories brings us expression of sadness on our face.