JOIN USAs soon as I heard the key turn in the lock and the door open with a small squeak, I dropped whatever I was doing and ran to my parents' room. "Wait! Wait!" I yelled. "Don't close the door. Let me see the magic cards!"
The magic cards were one of the attractions in father's treasure chest. It wasn't really a chest. It was a Godrej cupboard but it held real treasures for us children. Father's coats and jackets hung from hangers on the top shelf and the lower shelves contained his other clothes and belongings. It was the central shelf which had a special allure. It held the most interesting items. The cupboard was opened and the treasure shelf displayed on evenings when we had nothing to do, usually on rainy days when we had finished our homework but couldn't go out to play.
One of the treasures was a metal coin box shaped like a safe. Father would empty the safe on the bed and would ask us to arrange the coins in piles according to denomination. This was to facilitate counting them to see how much had been saved. I remember feeling very important like I was helping to count the money in a bank! We would make piles of one paisa, two paise, three paise and five paise coins. The 25 paise, 50 paise and Re 1 coins were for father to stack up.
Another treasure was father's collection of Christmas and New Year cards. He was sentimental about the cards he received and never threw them away. They all had beautiful pictures of snow covered cottages or of Santa Claus riding a sledge.
One magic card had a picture of a silhouetted Christmas tree which would change colour from red to green when you turned it this way and that. Another magic card was a three-dimensional one which had a picture of a pretty girl with a saucy smile. When you held it at an angle, she closed one eye in a wink. These were the most fascinating cards ever and I could never finish my time at the cupboard without admiring them. Another treasure was a magnet on which father would store his tie pins, some paper clips and small safety pins.
He also had a set of interesting puzzles, the best of which were two odd-shaped plastic pieces which, if placed in the right order, would form a perfect pyramid. I would forget how to place the pieces every time and I would struggle hard with it, finally giving up. But father would do it in a second and it seemed like magic to the seven-year-old me.
Today, with my smartphone, I have all kinds of entertainment at my fingertips. But the joy I get from surfing social media, playing Scrabble or watching YouTube videos is nothing compared to the thrills I used to feel as a child playing with the treasures in father's treasure chest.