Reading letters from readers bemoaning the lack of space for children to play here and the misuse of car parks for this purpose made me realise how lucky I was.
There was certainly no dearth of room growing up as we had the privilege of living in spacious homes with a lot of land wrapped around to explore and let off pent-up energy. In these old mansions, relatively speaking, the nearest neighbour was not even within shouting distance. You could sit in your garden the whole day and not catch a glimpse of the people next door. There was usually a thick hedge or wall flanked by tall trees dividing the properties, which helped maintain one’s privacy.
The compounds were big enough to easily accommodate a cricket pitch and a badminton court or two while huge trees with sweeping branches provided ample shade to rest when we exhausted ourselves running around. Some of these bore fruit such as delicious lychees and mangoes and so they had to put up with a relentless assault by young limbs clambering over them to reach the succulent prize at the top.
No one could complain about dogs that barked all day or unruly children bringing the house down. So, it was a win win situation for us rambunctious kids as we tore through the house and explored the compound with whoops of joy, playing our games of make-believe and exploring every nook and cranny of the huge outdoors. The exploration often revealed creatures such as venomous snakes living in the dense foliage and I even remember the rare sight of a fox running across the acreage early one morning.
The rooms in the house were cavernous in size and there was never any squabbling over personal space. In fact, their sheer size seemed to invite us to bring our games indoors, something that didn’t always go down well with the adults. The downside to this, however, was that we children got used to being noisy with no fear of repercussions apart from parental wrath when their nerves couldn’t take it any more. Then, as the big houses gave way to flats, with a scarcity of army accommodation, we learnt to downsize our activities. Coming to terms with living in limited space in a flat took some adjusting. Initially we bumped into walls and found ourselves with little room to run around. Worse still, we were constantly being reminded not to make too much noise as the neighbours might complain.
But this change had its upside too. One could yell out from a window and attract the attention of a group of kids playing downstairs. Or shout out to mum as we were closing the front door behind us that we were just going down the street and be reasonably sure that she would have heard us. If one wasn’t too sure of the reaction to our ‘telling’ her rather than ‘asking’, the faster one fled the wiser.
Living within a more densely populated residential community also meant availability of many more facilities such as a swimming pool at the club which was within walking distance. This was where we learnt to stay in water without expelling most of it with our frantic movements to stay afloat.
And eventually I found myself in this country where there’s no dearth of space, but where rents aren’t exactly consumer-friendly. So, I find myself confined to a one-bedroom flat and feel oddly comforted when the watchman tells me that I should be sharing it with another family or house mate like most people do! He bemoans my profligate ways even as I shudder at the thought of sharing this little space. I have become very possessive about my space and refuse to yield even an inch of it.