…I truly roamed the hills and dales as a child. The small town in Malaysia where I grew up as a child was a picturesque little place. Everyone knew everyone else. So there was no way I could ever get lost. Walking back home after school itself was a delightful experience. It was a long straight road from school to home, a road lined with trees on both sides so that the overhanging green canopy intertwined forming a virtual verdant cover overhead. One never felt the sun nor the heat. And there were neat little houses with well-kept gardens all along the route and a large park in between. So there was always a riot of colours everywhere. I just drank in the sight greedily, peeping into every garden to see what new flower had bloomed that day. As soon as I reached home, there would be grandpa waiting with a mug of milk and biscuits to feed his supposedly starved grandchild. I gobbled up whatever he gave me and would start off to find my playmates. The town was dotted with small knotty hills and meadows just behind the main thoroughfare of the town. This is where we set off to after school. There was also a small stream that ran through one of these meadows. The water was so clear you could see each and every pebble and stone at the bottom of the stream. I haven’t seen clearer water since. The water would only be knee deep so we splashed about in the water hunting for the smoothest and roundest pebble that we could find. I remember having a tin full of these pebbles. Once tired of the water we would race each other to the hilltop. The winner would get the pick of the day’s pebbles and I did lose quite a few pebbles this way for the boys always outsmarted the girls in sprinting. Then I dragged myself home tired but happy. But it would still not be time for bed until I had read a couple of my favourite stories for the night. I supplemented the books that my father gave me with more from the school library. There were Grimm’s fairy tales and Hans Andersen’s tales that lulled me to sleep. My heart went all out to the ugly duckling. (To continue…..)