Do you remember the sounds from your childhood?
Not the songs or TV jingles.
But the everyday sounds that quietly filled your home and shaped you.
This morning, I woke up at 7:00 AM. But I knew I was late.
Because by 7, I could already hear the familiar dhum, dhum—My downstairs neighbour crushing elaichi (cardamom) in a mortar and pestle for his morning tea. That sound—so quintessentially Indian—instantly took me back
To my childhood in a small Bengali household in Uttar Pradesh.
To the kitchen sounds of my ma crushing ginger and garlic in a hamaldasta.
As my neighbour brewed his tea, I sat at my desk, writing. I began listing the sounds of my 90s childhood—some still alive, most now just memories:
The bread seller’s cycle bell as we got ready for school.
Baba ringing the hand bell while walking across the house, moving his incense stick in perfect circles
The gurgling of 8 am and 1 pm supply water filling buckets and drums in the bathroom
Baba starting his Priya scooter.
Ma grinding sorshey (mustard seeds) and posto (poppy seeds) on the sheel bata (stone grinder).
Ma stirring spices and vegetables with "khunti" (spatula) in "kadhai" (wok).
The comforting hum of water pump and fan in iron-body desert coolers during summers.
The TV cable goes off—multicolour stripes flashing, accompanied by a long zzzzzzzz
The cassette tape entangling in our phillips player.
The click of the Yashica film camera button and opening of its lens.
The landline phone ringing.
Someone pressing the calling bell.
Friends calling out for evening play—“Pia, Pia!”, “Nikki, Nikki!”
Neighbors calling my ma "Pia ki mummy" or my ma calling my neighbor "Nikki ki mummy" (I'm still puzzled why they never used their actual names!)
Ma blowing the "saankh" (conch shell) followed by handbell and high-pitched "ulu ulu" during "sondhey" (evening prayer)
The 10:30 PM Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi theme song.
What sounds from your childhood still linger in your memory?