Kusum Choppra

THE SWING I entered with a big delighted grin on my face. " Aaj pata Maine kya kiya ?" ( you know what I did today ) Perhaps it was that grin that acted as a damper to his mood. He sat down heavily and picked up his paper " Kya ?" " Main jhoole pe baidhi ..." " kahan ?" " garden me" " Hoon ". The grump in that response effectively evaporated my grin. *********** Why, I ruminated, did women love swings ? Isn't it curious -- except for trapeze artists, you never see men on swings. It is always women and girls who are on the swings, in the gardens, the public parks, the playgrounds, the private jhoolas in homes, everywhere, all the time, in art, in literature, in song, in festivals, in the seasons, whatever. What is the special link between women and swings ? I had never given it another thought until that morning. One morning when I had walked through the almost somnolent ga...