Memory of Kids: The Blue Slide

Children are very fond of “sliding”. They love this experience. Our kids were also fond of it. We had a slide in our society campus, but it was too tall and steep for our kids’ age. On the other hand, the slide in the neighboring park was of perfect height and inclination so our kids loved it. After having been to the park’s slide, when we took them to our society’s slide they would demand to be taken to the park’s slide. Our son would demand strongly, “Blue wala Slide!” “Blue wala Slide!”

And when we took them to the park, they would get down and start running to the “blue wala slide”. Our son would scale the ladder quickly and would quickly slide; as if he wanted to enjoy as many slides as possible before it was time to go back to home. In this “rush”, he soon realized an obstacle – other kids! Often some kids would sit at the edge of the slide and wait for minutes before taking the plunge, as if “pondering” whether to take the slide or not. So anxious to complete many slides, our son pushed a kid down the slide! And it worked! The kid was surprised but did not mind.

So, our son learnt this trick. He would rush to get over to the top and when he would find another kid there waiting and “pondering” over the slide; he would simply push the kid. Since it was not harming anyone, I decided to let him enjoy his “trick” but kept watching over other kids so that they were never hurt. And very soon, our son met his match!

Once a kid from a poor family was sliding. His clothes were rugged, and he was not clean. As usual, our son saw him at the edge sitting and simply pushed him down. Then our son took his slide and came down too. Little did he know that at the bottom of the slide, his “victim” was waiting for him.

As soon as our son stood up, the angry victim child who was of the same age, came up to him. He stretched his right hand and positioned to “slap” our son in an animated manner. He also made an angry and threatening face. Our son, who had never encountered anyone like this before, did not know how to react. He simply stood there, looking at this kid. He was neither scared (since he had never been slapped like this before and hence did not know the pain of a slap) nor threatened (since no one threatened him like this before). I immediately shouted and stopped the angry kid from doing anything. He brought his hand down and went away. We were relieved. I guessed our kid must have got a lesson that day. Not everyone will take the sporty pushing in the spirit of a sport… Not everyone has a sense of humor…  

Rahul Tiwary