My Own Famous Five...


A few days back I came across a post by Sid of 'I Wrote Those' fame on Dagny's blog which immediately transported me to my childhood days. Such was the magic of his post titled 'Let Us Play' that I couldn't help but reminisce about my own childhood. Through this post thus I'll talk about few people with whom I spent the spring of my life. This post is about my home-grown famous five, my tribute to a memorable period with a special group of people of my life!

Shillong, a small hill-station town nestled in the Khasi Hills, is where I had the pleasure of growing up. Lush green hills, majestic waterfalls and the enticing pine forests, all stitched together in a canvas by clouds was my playground to begin with. Beautiful is a word that doesn't even measure up to the splendor of what many call the Scotland of the East.

It was exciting to wake up to clouds floating in through the bed-room windows almost every other day. The cozy cottages, the wild berries and the meandering streets all made for a magical home town. And truth be told I would give anything to be back there, maybe to those days too. But life doesn't always work out that way, does it? Anyways, moving on.


Out of all the years I spent in Shillong, 11 years were spent in a complex called 'Kalpana Kutir'. Picture a number of cottages sharing a common courtyard with gardens. Among those cottages, one was my home. And it was there that some of my oldest friendships were forged which to this day stand strong. It was there that five clueless kids met for the first time and decided to grow up together; playing, fighting, pulling each others legs and sometimes even crying. I was one of them. My sister, Vicky and Rishi (both brothers) and Sandeepon (whom I'll refer to as Pon going forward) were the rest of the members of this group which we strangely christened as 'Danger Journey'. Though several others came and left, we five stuck together and to this day keep our group alive even though through whatsapp owing to our diverse geographies. I guess we believe that long friendships strive when we have common dislikes and that we as a group have in abundance. Silly I know but it's true!


I remember being a lazy child, my sister and I both. Most of the times we would prefer being glued to the television set or to be more precise the cartoon network. But the moment Vicky, Rishi or Pon would emerge playing outside we would immediately put the remote down and spend time outdoors with them. 

I remember playing cricket, hide and seek and catch which now seems unbelievable considering the couch potato that I'm now. But more than playing we would spend our time either puncturing a certain uncle's scooter or standing up to the landlord's spoilt (read evil) grand-daughters. Pon and my sister even tricked one of them into touching bird poop. Don't ask how! Though let me assure you it was amazingly satisfying at that time. Telling ghost stories to each other was another of our favorite pastimes.

And then there were festivals which were more fun with all of us together. I remember bursting crackers as a group. They would laugh when I would jump at sudden loud bursts of noise, laughs at my expense that I never did mind. It made our Diwali a little more special I think. I remember Pon being scared of crackers in the first few years and we had to pull him out of his house against his will. Of course, he would shout and cry but finally we succeeded in making him an active participant in out cracker adventures too. 

Rishi was the cry baby of our group. He would cry at the drop of a hat and we would ensure he did by the leg pulling we subjected him to. Of course, he has now become one of the funniest members of our tribe and any discussion without him lacks a certain element of fun that we simply can't do without. Vicky was the one we would tease when it came to girls. Today he is in the US busy working and we still make fun of him. He is called #hashtag now though, for all his status updates on Facebook inevitably have all words beginning with #! Pon is our crazy wwe fan and any surprises related to insects in our group is a result of his plotting brain. What's the relation between wwe and insects? I have no idea! But then we can't do without him too, after all he was the one who did all the Tyre puncturing and window breaking for us those days. Not that we were rowdy or naughty kids but sometimes we did like to have fun. My sister was and still is the butt of all jokes for the three boys and she does the same to them too. We took our places in the group while we were in school and the trend has continued as 'Danger Journey' for us still remains our happy place!

I remember going for picnics to Cherapunjee together during winter vacations and those still are some of my fondest memories of us. I think as a group we spent more time talking than playing. I remember all of us sitting in my room talking not realizing that those moments would comfort us years later when we would be in need of smiles. So for me it's 'Danger Journey' now and forever, my own famous five!

So that was about my childhood band, tell me about yours before you go!
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Linking this to Write Tribes's Wednesday Prompt which is a free write of at-least 500 words without using the filler words. Which filler words you ask? Well, read here.
Write Tribe

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