Summer Vacations Revisited...

Every year in the month of May, my heart starts to feel the emptiness. It yearns for something more. Its when I see ads for Summer Camps, then I realize I want " MY SUMMER VACATIONS".... No, not the adult vacations...!!! It's the total packaged childhood summer vacations that we used to enjoy. 

Aah those days..!!! Just before summer vacations we used to have our "quick test" in school. A quick summary of all that we had learned in the first month and a half. It used to become the climax just before the fun and frolic of summers begins. 

I, for one, used to spend the first two weeks finishing the holiday homework. Of course, I didn't want to be bothered with all the tension while I was at Nanu's, right? 

All the subjects, I used to diligently work through. Actually I have always loved reading, studying and writing. So I never got bored doing the work.

The second anticipated thing of holidays was the video games. Mario, Contra, Star wars… My brother used to get the games console from the shop, on rent, and we used to take turns, one after the other to play. We used to play, till around 2-3 am, finally papa used to come and tell us to sleep.

I remember during those days, a loaf of bread used to cost 3 rupees. Mom used to give me 5 rupees. 3 for the bread, and 2 rupees for 20 minutes of my favorite Mario game at the shop. The high end gaming consoles, and gaming arcades of Malls cannot beat those 2 rupees and 20 minutes even today..!!

The next part of the vacations was the quintessential Art and Craft. No I didn’t go to Summer Camps. We used to read magazines like Target, Misha and Women’s Era, or watch TV to learn art and crafts. I used to attack the kitchen for my art supplies. All the empty milk pouches, bottle caps, pins, plastic spoons, threads, rubber bands and what not. The so called things which mom used to deliberately put into waste for me. So I can make Best out of Waste…

I used to love making those crafts with cardboard, glues and small pearls, beads, shiny pipes, balls, stars etc. The other part was drawing painting and  colouring. The summer vacations were not complete without a few incomplete art works of a little whimsical girl.

The 3^rd week of vacations meant packing off to Nanu’s house. We used to look forward to meeting our darling Massi and cousin brothers. The neighbour’s kids also teamed up and we used to spend evenings playing. I remember gathering Mogra flowers and making small garland. We used to go to Temple with Biji( Nani). All the kids used to put Hanumanji’s orange paste on our forehead and even nose. The temple used to play Aarti on loudspeaker and it was music to our souls back then. A lot of times, morning and evening I still feel as if the Aarti is playing in my ears even though I am thousands of kilometers and so many years into the future now. There were mangoes and litchis to be enjoyed in our own garden. And the budgeted one cake rusk and one khari for me every evening from the jar in Nani’s kitchen. My Nanu’s house was a bungalow and very beautifully planned. I loved that house.

The next three weeks were again the best I can remember. We used to go to Kangra, to meet Biji (dadi)… to our home. There were so many cousins and we all used to have a blast. Mornings of warm tea cooked on the heated chulha (mud hearth) in the kitchen. We used to start the day with a round of playing cards. The bath in the local stream, followed by watching train go by, walking back home, eating the bhaturus ( tasty Himachali flat bread) and achar (pickle). Afternoons spent watching movies at home, evenings spent around the mangoe and litchi trees. Sneaking out to go to little Hutment in the village, going to the river to enjoy the sunset. Elder brothers warning the kids of  neighbours not to bother our bhaiya once we all go back after the vacations. The trecks to Mata Bajreshwari temple, the visits to the Kangra Fort, praying at Mata Ambica temple in the fort, our Kuldevi. We all cousins used to make so many memories which haunt me now. 

Last spell of holidays was actually an exciting time for me. All homework done, I actually used to look forward to returning my school and classmates. But those vacations and those times, Oh I wish I had a time machine… I wish I could go back in time and enjoy those days again...