When I was a small boy - Maria's School

I'm still a small boy. But there was a time when I really was small. Doors, gates, walls and houses all appeared huge, just like in the world of the Lilliputians.. I am not sure how I felt then - but based on what I have remembered all this while, I used to feel alive, mesmirized, as if I'm Alice in Wonderland. I used to live in a nice house in the trans Gomti area, considered new and modern by Lucknow standards. I used to go to the nearby school, which was run by a white woman called Maria in her house just three or four houses away from us. We used to refer to it as Maria's School. She had a lovely daughter with blue eyes, a year or two elder to me. I was four or five years old. I have distinct memories of playing Ring-a-Ringa-Roses in their green Lawn. They celebrated Christmas with great fervor. She had an elder son who used to play with me. We used to play hide n seek and hide under their beds. My Dad n Mom used to leave me at their place when they had to go out for shopping or a movie. When Maria moved out of that house she sold her belongings. The silverware that continued to remain in our home for next thirty years, a few spoons or forks may still be lying around at my Mom's were hers that my Mom had bought from her. We always refered to them as Maria's cutlery - the Italian woman.