The Little Box Of Happiness

I was seven then, two years younger to my sis 'Moni'. My father was recently posted in this new place where we didn't have any friends so far. Moni & I used to play together. I had two more siblings though. But, they were too young to play with us. Moni was very creative and always had wonderful ideas. It was for her that we had made our small fish pond in the backyards. We used to take care of those little fish by feeding them and by replacing the pond water. We also had our small kitchen garden where we grew peanuts and grams. The mango tree in the backyards had an in-built tree house on which we used to climb and sit for hours.

We had plenty of things to play with but we still tried new things every day. As a child one never gets tired of exploring. One day we found a box made of ply in our store room. It had that nice smell of newly painted house. It was clean and big. Big enough for two of us to get into it. We pulled it out and placed it near our pond. Moni told me to bring some raw tamarind and salt. Idea was to get into that box and get cozy and then enjoy the tangy tamarind with salt under the sun. We passed the whole afternoon eating the tamarind and talking about ourselves inside that box . We were filled with great joy when we came out of the box after sometime. This was another idea that worked. We often did this for next few months till the box became small for two of us.

I often remember it when I come across the smell of newly painted house; our box carried the same smell.
Now when I look back, I wonder what was there inside that little box which made us so happy?