Summertime

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There are many activities you can indulge yourself in order to spend some quality, creative time during the summer. But my favorite summer pastime… ahem… is playing with my tool. I really had to think long and hard to come up with this choice.

I have had this tool ever since I was born; okay I guess it is as long as I can remember. Frankly when I was young I didn’t even know what it was. I asked my mother and she brushed it aside, she was not a very technical sort of person anyway. When I persisted, she said it was a gift from my father. So off I trundled to my father and asked him what it was. He thought for sometime, as if contemplating whether to answer or not, and then said it was a tool. I asked him why I needed it. He thought again, this time for a bit longer and told me that everyone needed a tool.

“Everyone,” I asked, “Does mama have it?”

“No, women don’t have it, okay some of them have it but generally women don’t have tools,” he replied.

“Why is that?” I asked.

“Because they have men to help them out when they are in need,” he replied.

“How do I use it?” I asked.

He wouldn’t answer that one and just said, “You will know when the time is right,” then he pushed me and added, "Go out and play."

I remember spending a lot of my time holding my tool in my hand and feeling it and twisting and turning it trying to get a look from all the sides. It had a long handle. There was a head at the end and It was round and thick on one side and pointed on the other. There was a slit on the pointed side. I just couldn’t figure out how to use it.

As I grew up I became friends with the neighbor’s daughter. She was a couple of years older to me and boy, was she smart. She had answers to everything. One day I showed her my tool. She was impressed and I could see it in her eyes.

“That’s a nice one,” she said.

“What is it used for?” I asked her the question with the still elusive answer.

“Well,” she thought and then said, “You can use it for, what shall I say, nailing…, pounding…, hammering and whatever.”

“What about the slit on the other end?”

“I am not sure but I think it is for some kind of ejection,” she answered.

“Do you wanna play?” I asked.

“No I will pass this time,” she replied and added, “You go and play by yourself but be careful, keep the pointed end covered, especially when you are playing with someone else otherwise there will be disastrous consequences.”

By and by I got used to my tool and started enjoying playing with it. To this day I make sure I play with my tool with or without someone else at least three times a week. I nail away, I pound away and I hammer away till the time I am satiated. Of all the activities I do during the summer, playing with my tool is the best and the most satisfying and I must add creative also. Try it out and you will know why. Have a look at my tool, at this link