Had written this one two years ago for my project's newletter..
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Come summer, and memories of wonderful childhood days ooze from the closed chambers of my mind. It makes me go back to the old lanes of childhood. Childhood is a different world altogether, its like some heavenly place, where all colors look brighter, the air filled with fragrance and each morning more refreshing than the previous one. No, this wasn’t “Summer of 69”, This was a Summer season which came many years after Summer of 69 and made the summer season something very- very close to my heart.
Come summer and all the sweet memories come flooding back, fondest memories of childhood when I along with my siblings and cousins used to go to our grandparents home at our village to spend the summer vacation. It looks as if I am looking back in my notebook where I had scribbled down something yesterday. We can not put back the clock, but memories give us an alternative, using which we keep hold onto the things we love, special moment of our life, which we never want to let go of. I feel, in every human, there is a writer who unknowingly writes his own master piece of literature, his own book of memories stored safely in some back drawer of his mind, which he looks into after sometime, when he wants to rejoice the old days which have passed, to never come back again ever…
Come summer and I feel nostalgic and remember the best season of my life, childhood. Like every good thing this too doesn’t come in abundance. But those days were really good, though somewhat different from what they are today. Of course there were minimal modes of entertainment. Especially on going to our ancestral home in our native place to spend summer vacation, we were left with very few options. There was no TV, no computer games and situation really demanded us to be at our creative best to kill the boredom! And that was the best part of it… Everyday coming up with some new ideas to spend the long hot summer days.
Come summer and comes in mind the images of those glorious looking and sweet smelling mangoes with heavenly taste. Unlike in cities, we used to get a large verity of mangoes in the village… Malda, Dashehari, Kishen, Bhog, Himsagar, Sinduri, Safeda, Fazli, Biju, Sipia, Shukul, Kesar and many more!!
Right since my childhood I have been in love with this fruit having taste of divinity. All of us used to sit in the backyard eating away those juicy mangoes… and at times to such an extent that we had no room left for dinner! That was a life which we really lived at fullest, playing outside from sunrise to sunset without any worries, memories of each of us fighting for petty issues claiming a particular branch to be his or hers and then again giggling together completely forgetting about the fight! Really… those were the times which I really miss… Those were the real vacations.
Nothing can replace that feeling of freedom which we used to have on climbing mango trees. On reaching there on the top of the tree, I felt like I am at the top of the world. We all used to have our share of stunts, jumping and dangling on branches and trying to pluck that elusive mango at the farthest and thinnest of the branches and on falling down, patting off the dust and throwing stones aiming that mango. There were times when we were scolded for roaming around (sometimes good thrashings as well) in warm whether, but sneaking out of home tip-toed when all the elders were taking an afternoon nap added to the thrill… Warm “Loo” never deterred us; neither did the thrashing and scolding which we used to get… We were a bunch of fearless spirit full of enthusiasm with never-say-die attitude, always marshaling all our intelligence to protect our fundamental right, having adventure in sweltering summer afternoon.
Climbing the jamun tree, sneaking into neighborhood courtyard to steal pickles (Just to tease the neighbors); cutting raw mangoes to eat with salt were real fun… And the best moment of the day used to be when all of us were rewarded 50 paise for being good kids and staying indoor during day (They rarely found out that we used to sneak out when they were asleep!!). We used to get tasty churans, poppins and peppermints with them… Finally, all these funs were cut short once our vacation were over and we used to wait for the next summer, for the next summer vacation, for a whole new series of adventures which were in store and we would be having. If wishes had the wing, I would have loved to fly back in those days. I really wish I could go back to those old days again. But wishes don’t have wings and we really can’t put back the clock. The only thing that we can do is remember… remember the summer days full of fun and adventure and warm summer nights with stars out in full glory lighting up the night sky with the full moon looking on in wonder. When I compare it with today’s life, I feel life in those days were so simple, with least complications.
Oh, you made me nostalgic. How I cherish my child hood days!
ReplyDeleteGreat post, good enough to be published! :):)