One summer afternoon..

One summer afternoon.

Bangalore doesn’t really fall in hot climate cities, but for some reason it’s really hot out today. Generally this climate should irritate me as I am working from home and I should really miss office for AC at leastJ .

Today this afternoon is giving me some different feeling. I am not at all getting irritated; in fact I had been really missing such afternoon from long time. Today it took me back in time. Time where we used wait summer holidays to come (off course in May not in Sept J ) just to feel free from all restriction like uniform, homework and getting up early in morning and getting constant push from parents to reduce playing time. Summer was the time where we used to plan for everyday. I remember mom taking both of us, me and my brother to our grandfather’s place.

We used call him “Anna”. It was small town called “Budhgao” located in Sangli district. It wasn’t that much developed. We used always look forward to meet our gang (all cousins).

There our day used to start somehow by getting up early @ 7 am (with additional scolding from mom and aunties). After having tea, we used get pushed out of house for morning walk, which I doubt any of us would have liked it. We used to visit one old temple called “Gundubua Mandir”which was almost 3 km from house everyday as morning walk. While returning we used discuss about how to plan out the day in such a way that we could escape from all elderly to-do stuff and can have maximum funJ. After coming home we used have breakfast and sit with our “Anna” for small study session which used to be strictly compulsory for 3 of us - me, Rushi(my brother) and one of cousin Girish because of being in same age group, remaining 2 of us were pretty much younger. We used to really enjoy that session because it was without any text book and any specific rules. Anna used give us 15 random English words of which we were supposed to spell and 15 sentences of which we were supposed to change tense or make some other grammatical changes. It was just 1-1.5 hr session. I was very poor in this(still am) and used to feel bad about it. But Anna would never scold. After session we used have pure homemade lunch. I can still remember the taste of desi ghee which my Aaaji (my grandmother) used to prepare and lunch was always served very hot.

After lunch the real fun used to start. As all older people used to take rest for us it was full freedom on one condition that is, “do not make noise in house go out and play” and that was what we always waited for. We had big veranda around the house. My grandmother was very much fond of gardening. There were around 6-7 coconut trees, different flowering trees including jasmine, rose, hibiscus, Chrysanthemumsand many more. Also there was a mango and a Sitaphal tree. But our favorite tree was Pomegranate under which we used sit every afternoon. We had one cot which kept dedicatedly for us so that we remain outside. In afternoon we mostly used to play card games where cheating was very common. We used take loosing so seriously that we always ended up fighting and then making up later in the evening as we never wanted people outside our gang should know about internal affairsJ.

In evening, we used have some snacks made by my aunty Shubhda mavashi, she always cooked delicious food. In evening our favorite games used to be chor-police where younger members(Ashu and Radha whom we always ragged)  used to be police and we 3 used to be chor (thieves) who never used get caught and games never finished and most of the time they cried a lot and complained to their parents, but we never really listened to them. We truly were Goondas of our timesJ.

Late evening my Aaji used to light lamp at the “temple” and call all of us to for prayers. After that one of my aunts, Pushpa mavashi used to make us count all tables and squares from 1 to 30 and cubes from 1 to 20. That is how all us never had problems in our math. I realize that now. But that time we did only because they pushed usJ.  After the evening study part we used go for dinner, again made by my Aaaji very hot and tasty with full of desi ghee. After dinner, we all used gather near Aana for story. He always used tell us some real war stories. One still remembered, story about one solider who was caught by enemy. Its was story of struggle and survival. We all used to get so much involved in stories that we never used remember about watching any TV.

After the story we all used help Shubhda mavashi to make sleeping arrangement for all on terrace. House had a big terrace. We all used talk about sky, stars and tried find out different shapes. And thats how our day used to get over.

Wow ,those were the days of summer vacations. And its now ,if try to write it to down what I did whole then I guess I will able to finish in 5 lines.

Now its 5 o’clock afternoon is already passed .I just came back from tour of my summer vacations. Its feel so refreshing J 

Wish there could have been some way I could capture my childhood and go visit and experience the same anytime I want.

Life must go on J