Are you a too a GenZ who feels fortunate to have lived the last of millennials life? Yes, we are the lucky GenZ of the late 1990s who have probably had the best childhood which the kids after the 2000s can't imagine. My own story is a little different as I spent the first 6 years of my life in my native village in a huge joint family.

Since rural areas in the 1990s weren't much developed then, one can say that time in rural areas was at least 3 to 4 years behind urban/ metro cities. Therefore I can say that it was another great thing that happened to me. I often wonder that had I been brought up in a metro city, I would have missed all the adventures and excitement of living in a rural area where almost everyone knows everyone. I'm glad I wasn't born in a metro city and got lucky enough to spent my childhood in the most natural way without falling into the traps of materialism and consumerism.

So I wasn't born in a hospital, but at home without any pomp and show and the financial condition of my grandfather was the same as that of an average rural family would have. We had just enough to feed ourselves and lead a decent life. My grandfather had two younger brothers and therefore there were three separate houses side by side with separate main entrance opening at the main road of the village. But the fun part was that internally all three houses were connected. This was the most adventurous part for me as a child; I would simply reach the youngest grandmother's house without having to use the main door.

My father was the eldest among his sibling and cousins, followed by my brother who is the eldest third-generation kid. I was born just after one and a half years after him and enjoyed the privilege of being the first grandkids of the family. I had 3 pairs of grandparents who would wait for their turns to play with their grandkids. We were the only lucky kids who have heard stories from all our grandparents because they were too enthusiastic about spending time with their first grandkids. In fact, I would say my brother was the luckiest as not just the three grandparents but other elders of our extended family would not leave a chance playing with him. My mother says she never got the chance to spent time with her own son other than feeding him as there were a lot of people already waiting to take him as soon as he was fed, bathed, and dressed. 

I was just born with not much highlight or celebration, but my parents were extremely delighted. The financial condition of my family that year wasn't good, but in the same year, my father got his teaching job and then came my first birthday, which was a bombastic celebration despite my grandparents not being so happy about spending unnecessarily.

But, I grew up in three houses as a baby and in the whole village as a kid. There wasn't a single place in the whole village that I haven't explored and there wasn't a single tree I had not climbed.

Though before the age of 7 my parents decided to move to a nearby city for our better education opportunities, but those 6 years are the treasure of my life

There are hundreds of amazing stories of my 6-year rendezvous at my village which I'll keep sharing under the same title.