That childhood field and the lost days.

Hello dear friends! I hope you're all doing great. A few days ago, I was walking along a village road in the afternoon. Suddenly, I saw some young boys playing on an empty field beside the road. Some were passing the ball, some were running toward the goal, and some were falling and getting back up. At that very moment, my heart paused for a bit. Memories of my childhood flashed before my eyes—those days that now live only in my mind.

Once upon a time, I used to play just like them. The field was our favorite place in the whole world. Football, cricket, jump rope, hide-and-seek—what didn’t we play! We would go to school in the morning, but our minds were always thinking about one thing—where will we play this afternoon? When will school end so we can run to the field?

There were days when we even skipped school or madrasa classes just to go and play. My mother would keep calling us, but we would hide somewhere in the jute fields or rice paddies, busy in our games. Returning home in the evening meant facing scolding from my mother. I even got punished a few times—but that didn’t stop me from playing. Now when I think back, it makes me smile. Back then, playing was life itself. There were no worries, no mobile phones, no social media—only dreams that reached the sky and endless laughter across the field.

Today, when I look at young boys playing, I see they play the same way—running, falling, getting up again with smiles. I feel like time may have changed, but the joys of childhood remain the same. We just grew up and forgot those simple moments of happiness.

Now when I walk through the busy streets of the city, I see children glued to mobile screens. There is no playing in the field, no sparkle in their eyes. But when we played, our bodies would be drenched in sweat, we would be out of breath, yet still didn’t want to stop. At the end of the day, there was a tired body covered in dust, aching legs, and a deep satisfaction in the heart. That was true happiness.

Those memories have now become stories. But those stories live on within us, as long as we feel them in our hearts. I believe that someday this generation will return to the fields, reconnect with nature, and rediscover the joy of childhood.

And me? I’ll be watching from afar, seeing my own lost days come back in the smiling faces of those little ones.