summer time!

I was on my way back home in the afternoon, which by no means is a pleasurable task with the sun burning down on you. As I entered the lane leading to my house, I noticed a Kwality Walls Salesman on his bright red cycle. The contraption seemed very tech savvy. I saw a small girl contemplating whether she wanted to buy a feast or a simple choco bar(which i love) .For a mere five rupee difference(??) she was racking her brains as to whether she wanted a plain jane vanilla coated with chocolate or a more complicated feast bar with almond fudge!!!


As I passed by, I couldnt but help remember the many a summer time I had spent in Coimbatore. Exams invariably got over by march end or april first week and the books werent touched until june first week. Sometimes I feel I got the best education during these two months. I never really played with dolls as a child. I have very vague memories of having followed my brother around as a very young kid. A few years down the line I was bitten by the reading bug, I devoured the tinkles and amar chitra kathas of the world and graduated soon enough to enid blytons. I have dreamed infinitley(like ever l'il gal who reads enid blyton) of having gangs of friends, meeting up in garages for lemonades. Never really thought of solving mysteries. Even managed to start a gal pal gang in fifth std. We met up at vaishnavi's house. It was a day where we spent talking, watching old videos of vaishnavi doing mohiniattam and of course gorging on usha aunty's food!

All that gave way to a summer of cycling when we were taught to balance one. I vividly remember my cycling trips with then pals sangeetha and sunitha. We went over the whole of colony in our bright and shiny bikes. No motives to burn calories. Just talking and riding the cycle.

Summer in variable brought with it......MANGOES. It has been a part of my life for every summer. Bright shiny, succulent mangoes. When my mum used to sit down to cut them, i would sit like a hawk nearby and grab the pieces right off the knife!!!!(i still do). Mango shakes for all at home was a once in a while affair and hence a much cherished one.

I never really had a native place to go to unlike my other school mates who religiously made trips to their ancestral house. So dad used to make it a point to take us on holidays. We discovered attibelle, thekkady thus with Bhajj uncle and his family. The free breakfast buffets, the fooling around with divya, rakesh and my bro.

Such summers gave way to more grown up(read boring) summers where i used just sleep and watch TV and read books.

Then the ugly thing called board exams raised it's monsterous heads and vacations were no longer nice. We spent time studying for the next year, attending tuitions and so on...

Then came the engineering college holidays(which werent as grand as school...but nevertheless when benchamarked with other colleges our college had considerably more holidays than the rest). I really dont remember doing anything particularly useful during those days. I do remembering studying for CAT during the final yrs of college.

The came my summer holidays with TISS. Oh there were really no holidays in fact as we had to do our summer project.....

But after my graduation from TISS I have 2 months to myself..(1 month down... one more to go) before i join my first job. Feels like olden days and with everyone around me telling i will never get back these days I am on a unsaid mission to well... make use of these days. Use them to relive those parts of my life which i enjoyed the most.-those days when i really moulded myself to be what I am today

Those days which were not spent in hurry to run the race.

Those days which were more simple and definitely more enjoyable.

I reached home, borrowed money from mum(even though my wallet was full), listened to her instructions , took my vehicle back to the ice cream vendor and bought two choco bars- one for me and one for my mum.