Sometimes time gets killed so fast that it might get unnoticed.Today I can recall my father’s word: “It’s the actual length and when you will gain height, you won’t have to jump high to shoot the ball in basket.” “Yes, Dad now I don’t have to jump so high to shoot the ball.” I could say that when I finished the 1st year of University.
It’s a cool dawn of July Summers and I am standing at the place which I marked as a basketball court when I was in 6th grade of school. I remember before playing, my Dad and our neighbors use to park the cars at the side of street to make enough place for kids to play in Block. Looking at the marked floor, I could still smell the fresh paint which along with my neighboring friends I brought from a nearby shop. We collected the money and choose the best quality paint. And now, we did not had a large enough scale to draw a semicircle on the floor which was the biggest problem to make sure how much points to be given if scored. We did not even know all the basketball rules but still we wanted a professional prototype.
My father finished fixing the basket in a permanent way by drilling holes in wall and applying cement thereafter and we were still thinking how to draw exact circles on the floor. “Hey! I have an Idea, when will Topographic Geography come in use?? ” I screamed and we drew the markings by a grid method. That was fun. We marked the floor exact but today I think, “If markings were to be made by brush, used by our hands and marked on floor, how come we got the paint on T-shirts?” Perhaps that’s why we were called kids. Just a bit far from a halfway line I could see the stupid fenced grill which covered the lawn of my neighbors. It is having a sharp iron solid ends mounted as artificial flowers. They are still very sharp and were so before which was only responsible of making our dozens of basketballs deflate.
Today no one is standing on balconies of the building and the newspaper is being delivered in balconies by the newspaper boy. But just to the back of time some of our neighboring couples use to watch us from the same balconies while sipping their evening tea. Especially Mr. & Mrs. Singh, a newly wedded couple from the flat 140B uses to clap if anyone of us scores a miraculous shot. I could still hear the shouting, hooting and our loud applause while I am watching the basket which had some spider nets now. I guess no one is playing but the basket did not shake an inch even we threw millions of shots. Thanks to Dad. Generation changed and kids born in 21st century are not sporty enough besides they are comfortable with their cell phones, dating and relations.
Suddenly I heard the same voice “Oye!! Are you bringing yours or should I bring mine”? She is my neighbor friend talking about the basketball. We grew up together playing lots of stupid kiddish games and basketball after all here. She use to have Nike Basketball and I had Cosco but today where was mine I did not know. “I don’t have the Cosco, maybe lets shoot with nike” I replied. “Same old reason, afraid of getting your ball getting deflated by the fence.”She smiled and shot the ball in basket. She was watching me from when, I did not notice. All the dirt and Spiders cleared off in the first stroke. “It’s been years and she still had the ball with which we played last time” That’s what girls like, saving the memories. Suddenly hearing the basketball thuds made my old friends gather and one of them who use to be late always for the game, was the first one today. We played and laughed again with same old spirits and saw the 4year old son of Mr. and Mrs. Singh clapping and screaming rejuvenating our childhood memories on the same court.
