3:04 PM | Author: kaushik


Exams have not yet begun, but I am already dreaming about 'Summer Vacations'. Though, it is going to be just 9 days of vacations for me this year (rest of the summer has to be spent 'researching'), my mind is already churning out millions of plans for those days. For one, my sister and cousing is going to be here, exactly at the same time, I have the 9 days off, so lots of roaming around is there for sure! plus I am planning to learn palaghat cuisine from my mom in these holidays. Lets see, if it works out.


Since, I have already started on summer vacation, I don't mind another jog down memory lanes, writing about the summer vacations past!


In school, summer vacations meant only one big event: The trip to Madras. Actually, all the excitement started a lot earlier, as early as march, when dad would go and get the tickets for our trip, to madras by coromandel express and from there by mail (was a tradition...never remember travelling the other way round!). My sister and me, would then just wait for the dreaded school days in april to get over. Each night, it would be the same talk, about traveling, about buying stuff for our cousins, about 'what to wear' in the train. We would be so excited, all the discussion at home would be about the trip only. My sister, even composed a song (to be sung daily in the bathroom) about the trip!
For me, my love affair with trains is due to this annual summer vacation in madras. THe most looked forward part of the trip would be the train journey, with all the days before it, spent shouting 'chai-chai' and browsing through the railway time-table.
Madras was awesome fun. Got to meet relatives and cousins, but most of all, got pampered by grand-parents! But both of us would never enjoy madras for more than 4-5 days. We would start pestering mom: "when do we go back to calcutta". But, again, in the train back, both of us used to wish we were on the train travelling in the oppositte direction.

Apart from the trip, summer vacation was a time for hobbies. In the old house (lived at two places in calcutta), it was time for a movie a day. We had got a new VCP, and there was 'HOPE' and 'INDU" rental shops close by. Mom would get one english movie a day, and I am sure we would have exhausted the childrens collection at both the places. Even dad would be more relaxed during the summer vacations, and would end up getting 4/5 tamil movies from 'lake market' to be enjoyed over the week-end. (No wonder, my sis and I are such movie buffs). The first day of summer vacation, both of us used to go to the stationary shop and get the thickest drawing note book available, buy lots of crayons and water colours and decide that the summer would be spent 'drawing'. We used to draw like crazy during the summers. My other hobby, was obviously to 'read'. 'Jaico-Childrens-Classic': that was what I used to read. Maybe a two or three of those books in each vacation and a mandatory revision of 'tom sawyer'!! Summer days were spent lazing around in the back-yard, climbing the only tree there (until it suddenly fell down one day), eating mangoes, cycle races and 'ghar-ghar' with my sister.

At vishal (the other place we lived in), summer vacations just meant play-play and play. The place was filled with kids of my age and thus summer vacations were spent doing the one thing, spending all day in the sun. The bell would ring at 9AM, just as dad would leave for office, "Aunty, Kaushik hai kya", and off we would go to play. Cant even imagine, the number of games, we have invented over those summer vacations. After a brief break for lunch, it was time for 'Scotland yard' and 'The game of LIFE' and 'Monopoly' at my place. Those were really great times, sipping rasna and playing those board games. Evening time, well again, do what, go play and the night was for a movie with dad! Sadly though, the only reading that I did during this time was the sports page of the statesman, read religiously daily. Still had time for drawing though!!

As I grew up, summer became synonomus with just two things. Cricket practise and cycling. There was a time when I harbored the hopes of playing for India and summer gave me the opportunity to spend nearly the whole day at douglas (incidentally, the same place where the great ganguly learnt to play the game) practising with 100 more young boys dreaming of playing for india.

And with my new hero ranger cycle, and a new found freedom given my mom to cycle on the main road!, i had formed a cycling clan. Each day, we would devise a new route to be conquered and go. The boldest of our plans: 'To cycle 38 kilometers to Diamond Harbor' (coming back would make that 76 kilometers). I am myself surprised now, but we went ahead with the plan, but dropped it after 12 kilometers (Still i cant imagine
myself cycling 24 kilometers in a day today!!)

How can I forgrt to mention our 'Adda' gang. Summer evenings spent in the terrace gossipping from movies to cricket to politics to studies to almost anyrhing!


The last evening of the holidays was such a tough time. Time to take out those dreaded uniforms again, 'pack' the school bag again. All this was done with a heavy heart and a feeling of 'Oh my GOD! how can one month be over so soon!!!'. But the next day, in school, you meet friends after a month and all is normal again, except for the 'home-works'!

I 'enjoyed' summer vacations a millennium ago!!!!
well, the last summer vacation in school,that of 2000, was spent going to the tutions morning to evening, and studying till 2 in the night, for the dreaded IIT enterance exam. Yuck!!

In college, sadly may-june was always filled with classes, and labs and exams.

May 9th, cant wait for it. Hopefuly, this will again be a summer vacation which reminds me of those lost vacations!



Ah! a RVCE chemical blogger!!! check Manjunath out
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6 comments:

On 6:50 PM , Cup said...

What a wonderful post! I could visualize your summer days. I've always dreamed of visiting India; thanks for bringing it to life.

 
On 3:05 AM , Yadhvi said...

Kaushik,
Nice post! now that am working.. really miss those summer vacations :-( going and staying with grand parents, relatives et al!
But these days, it is really ironical to see most of the kids go to summer classes/camps. We had more freedom to freelance

 
On 6:54 AM , Vidya said...

Gosh, your post brought back a lot of memories !! I remember taking a trip to my grand parents every summer holidays. Though it would be scorching hot out in the country side, it would be super duper fun !

Hmm...I miss those days !

Vidya

 
On 6:40 PM , Chica, Cienna, and Cali said...

:) nice post on summer vacations: got me all nostalgic. I remember as a kid when we used to head for our summer-vacation-family-trips , the best part were always the total chaos on almost all our trips. Internet was not an option in Papa's days, so we invariably ended up discovering the places on our own with ample help from locals ofcourse and our chance discoveries always used to bring us much more pleasure than a guided tour ever can.


and thanx for dropping by and leaving a comment behind on my blog. i shall be a regular here now. have a great weekend!!!!

 
On 11:13 PM , Amrita said...

i share the same sentiment for vacations. well, i guess this is one of the best parts of school life-waiting for summer vacations and setting out on some trip. u description of trips to madras reminded me when we used to visit kolkata on every summer vacation. was a great time to chill out with cousins and uncles and aunts at my 'mamabadi.' nice post.

 
On 8:41 AM , kaushik said...

Beth: keep coming for more spice on india!!

Aragorn: even i cant believe it!! hmm...if someone travels as much as you.trains may be blah, but for me the sound of the train is music!!

yadhvi: i agree...kids are forced to do too much these days....poor souls

vidya: after a long time!!

moi: thanks a lot for visiting!
something that i did not mention in mu post was the summer trip that we took from madras....have explored the whole of south india.....was a lot of fun

DD: exactly....there should be summer vacations in office also!!!

amrita: mamabadi....when i was in cal, used to get real jealous of my bong frnds who had mamabadi in cal itself....and every summer...dhindora peeta rehta tha....going to my mama badi

ppl: mamabadi = uncles house (actually maternal uncle's house)