Summer Vacations

Summer vacations are here. Whoopee!!
But alas! For us office goers, there is no vacation. In summers also, we will be sweating out in offices. But children, they will be having a blast. Everyone can see loads of children, forming groups and playing in the afternoons. Many families have already left for their summer hideouts or to their relatives or grand parent’s places.

I can still remember, with nostalgia, my summer vacations, when we used to go to our maternal grandparent’s house or Nani and Nana’s or Aaji and Aazoba’s home, as we call them so fondly. My Aaji along with my maternal aunt, or maushi, used to live in a small village called Gandhinglaj, which is on Maharashtra, Karnataka border. The village was quite small, with only a 5 km stretch.

It’s a beautiful village. The village is carpeted all over by the green color. Different kinds of trees can be seen. It’s a perfect summer hideaway, as it is very cool even in May, because monsoon would have already hit that place. No sun could be seen even in the afternoons. We had a gala time playing outdoor games any time of the day.

The house my aaji lived in was a typical village type house. In cities, we hardly get to see such kind of homes. A small driveway was there, along side which there were so many different kind of trees and shrubs. There were fruit trees such as chickoo, ber, imli, kaju, mango, jamoon etc. We used to have a lot of fun climbing those trees and getting fruits from them. Though we used to get hurt and get our knees scraped, the fun we had couldn’t even be remotely compared with such things.

Beside the driveway, there was a small garden, jeweled with grass and many shrubs that gave exotic flowers. On one side of the garden, there was a small water tank, where water used to be stored, for watering the plants. Every evening, we would take out pipes and water the plants. Watering the plants was just an excuse to get drenched ourselves. And of course, we didn’t complain, if rain drizzled in the evenings. I had a frog friend who lived in that small tank, I don’t remember his name, but daily I used to get fearful of him and chase after him.

I also had a dog friend named ‘John’. He was such an adorable pet. Very peaceful and very silent. I used to sit on top of him and play ‘Horse horse’ and yet the poor animal didn’t even bark. It wouldn’t be unfair if I say that I used to terrorize him like anything.

The house itself, had very high ceilings and very cool. Late in the evenings, we used to sit near the gate of the house and play Antakshari. Most of the time, mom and aaji either used to talk among themselves or talk to the people that used to pass our house. And to attract their attention, we used to sing or I should say scream our voices hoarse, but to no avail.

Almost daily the rain used to pour, yet never did I see any water logging in that place. Surrounding the village, there were many fields for different crops. We used to play in those fields, only in day light coz there was always fear of snakes snooping around. There were many dried out streams, but after rain, all the streams started flowing. The streams made the ideal picture. A small flow of water used to stream down from between the rocks, making a pool around with not much current, hence making it less dangerous for kids. That experience was exotic.

For shopping there was a supermarket. The years I am talking about are from mid-nineties to late nineties. At that time, I had not seen a proper supermarket, here in the city, in Ahmedabad. But that small little village had one, exactly like the one, that we see in English movies. That supermarket used to fascinate us at that time, though not any more, with so many being established everywhere now.

Such were my experiences of my childhood summer vacation, which were so awesome that they make me want to relive everything. But now that I know that they can’t be repeated, I keep their memories alive.