When I was a child, I looked forward to summer holidays. Summer holidays held their own charm. It was the time we would visit my nana nani’s place in Akola. They owned a huge palatial house, ground floor of which was hospital and first floor, the home. Me and my cousins would play in the big balcony overlooking the street below. We used to sit together on a big carpet on the terrace along with our grandmother, relishing mangoes. We would laze around on the floor of the living room with loads to rest on, watching 101 Dalmatians. We would eat freshly baked nankatai which the driver Ganpat would bearing from a nearby bakery. We would go on a long drive with our grandpa in their ambassador and he would show us the school where our moms had studied. We had also made a few friends in the colony. They would come in the evenings and we would play hide and seek. We would play cards with our mama who taught us all the tricks to cheat in the games and we loved him for that. We would enact small scenes or stories from our all time favorite comic tinkle. We would then assemble the adults for audience, wear proper costumes and perform those ‘skits’. I remember a story which we had enacted. There's a princess who is too proud and arrogant and insults any suitor who comes to ask her hand in marriage. She does the same at the ‘swayamvar’ arranged by her father. Her father, the king, is enraged and in order to teach her a lesson, takes an oath to marry her off to the first beggar that comes to the palace. When one such beggar comes to him, he really marries him off. The princess finds it hard to believe that her father would really keep his word. Then begin her hardships as she begins leaving a hand to foot life. But the beggar loves her and she begins to feel warmth for him. She understands how difficult life can be and learns her lesson. Then, she learns that the beggar is non other than the prince of the neighboring state whom she had insulted for some physical attribute at the swayamvar. It had been the plan of her father and the prince to show her the real world. Ashamed of herself, she apologizes to her husband and starts living a life without the previous arrogance.
We had once set a small play titled ‘modern ramayan’ where in the Ramayan takes place in this century. Instead of the deer, Seeta asks Ram to chase the latest motorbike, while she goes to the beauty parlor and then attends kitty. I remember I was King Dasharath as well as Raavan in this one. We had also set a dance to the Akshay Kumar Shilpa Shetty number ‘Churake dil mera….goriya chali’.
A girl lived in the neighborhood, whom we cousins disliked. I don't know why, but we tried to avoid her. But she never realized and would turn up again to play. Every time we made up some new reason. And ridiculous one at that. Once we were applying nail paint to each other's nails. We heard her coming. Immediately we painted our knees red with the red nail paint and when she came inside we told her we all had hurt ourselves and hence couldn't play with her. We even showed her our fake injuries. I still don't understand how we thought we could get away with something so gross! One more time when she came, to hide from her, we entered a room downstairs which was given on rent to a college going girl who used to come there for studying. All her books lay strewn on the bed, and she wasn't there. We heard the girl coming our way, and instinctively, sat on the bed, acting as if we were studying. When she came inside to call us, we told her we had a lot to study and didn't have time. This was another ridiculously hilarious excuse. We were hardly third or fourth graders while the books were of accountancy and business.
There was also a pair of twins, I don't recall their names. They were so identical, it was difficult to identify one from another. We used to have pot luck where in each one of us would bring one food item and we relished all preparations together either on our or their terrace.
To summarize, summer holidays were all about meeting cousins, eating mangoes, playing games, watching Vcd's and lazing around. Now, almost two decades later, things have changed.
First of all, summer holidays are no longer freedom holidays. They are no longer between two grades. Now kids behind their new grade in April and then have a summer break, with lots of homework. So disappointing! Secondly, children now don't seem to enjoy things which we used to do. They want something digital. Either a mobile or a MacBook or a note to play video games. And they can do so for hours together. Getting to watch TV was a rarity in our childhood. Now TV is not something which you get to watch as a reward. If we tell our kids what we did in our holidays, they find it boring. They find it hard to believe that once upon a time there was a world without internet. That once upon a time, there were no mobiles. That once upon a time, there was only Doordarshan. And that at that time, life was probably better.
We had once set a small play titled ‘modern ramayan’ where in the Ramayan takes place in this century. Instead of the deer, Seeta asks Ram to chase the latest motorbike, while she goes to the beauty parlor and then attends kitty. I remember I was King Dasharath as well as Raavan in this one. We had also set a dance to the Akshay Kumar Shilpa Shetty number ‘Churake dil mera….goriya chali’.
A girl lived in the neighborhood, whom we cousins disliked. I don't know why, but we tried to avoid her. But she never realized and would turn up again to play. Every time we made up some new reason. And ridiculous one at that. Once we were applying nail paint to each other's nails. We heard her coming. Immediately we painted our knees red with the red nail paint and when she came inside we told her we all had hurt ourselves and hence couldn't play with her. We even showed her our fake injuries. I still don't understand how we thought we could get away with something so gross! One more time when she came, to hide from her, we entered a room downstairs which was given on rent to a college going girl who used to come there for studying. All her books lay strewn on the bed, and she wasn't there. We heard the girl coming our way, and instinctively, sat on the bed, acting as if we were studying. When she came inside to call us, we told her we had a lot to study and didn't have time. This was another ridiculously hilarious excuse. We were hardly third or fourth graders while the books were of accountancy and business.
There was also a pair of twins, I don't recall their names. They were so identical, it was difficult to identify one from another. We used to have pot luck where in each one of us would bring one food item and we relished all preparations together either on our or their terrace.
To summarize, summer holidays were all about meeting cousins, eating mangoes, playing games, watching Vcd's and lazing around. Now, almost two decades later, things have changed.
First of all, summer holidays are no longer freedom holidays. They are no longer between two grades. Now kids behind their new grade in April and then have a summer break, with lots of homework. So disappointing! Secondly, children now don't seem to enjoy things which we used to do. They want something digital. Either a mobile or a MacBook or a note to play video games. And they can do so for hours together. Getting to watch TV was a rarity in our childhood. Now TV is not something which you get to watch as a reward. If we tell our kids what we did in our holidays, they find it boring. They find it hard to believe that once upon a time there was a world without internet. That once upon a time, there were no mobiles. That once upon a time, there was only Doordarshan. And that at that time, life was probably better.
