Summer Tag

Its quite a while that Cuckoo, tagged me, and that too a Summer tag! Summers in my childhood were nostalgic. Specially when I went down to my hometown in Kerala. It was like a yearly ritual, like a season that began with the end of the exams and ended with the beginning of a new term, which also meant that it was time to buy raincoats and gumboots! I just loved the thought of it, except that I had to go to school again! Eight things about summer? I don’t know if I can write down eight things but I will put down whatever I remember. If there are eight, great, if not, not so great!!

The train ride:
The train rides to Kerala used to be a hell of an experience. The train would leave at 6 o’clock from V.T. station, and would take three days to reach my home-town. So, to make it interesting all my dad and mom’s family would book the tickets together. It resembled more like a picnic. The house would be full of hurried activity the night earlier with packing of the bags and packing nimboo-chor(lemon rice) in banana leaves. The next day as the train chugged out of the station, it would be party time! All the kids would huddle together and get into antakshari and a game of ludo or snakes and ladders while somewould bury themselves into books of chandamama, champak or tinkle. Every new station would bring the cold drink walas and chaiwalas singing in a tune. I particularly remember once when I had stolen an orange, sitting on the top berth as the orangewala passed beneath. Through the entire day, me and my cousins kept picking up things from the baskets, the vendors used to carry on their heads until my dad spotted me and the rest was history.

The neighboring temple:
My house was close to a temple. A temple with a little pond. The temple is close to my heart for many reasons. I feel it is the most divine and unperturbed places in the world. A pujari washes the places and lights the diya everyday, and the pond was a bathing place to the villagers. The pond had a time for men and for women, and I was not aware of it. Once, myself and a friend who had accompanied me from Bombay went to the pond at 4 o’clock. We were playing the game ‘Who can stay underwater for the longest time’ I stayed for 45 seconds and it was his turn. He went under the water. It was almost 30 seconds when the women folk came, and asked me to leave. I left the place with his clothes and hid around the corner. The next I heard was women screaming and my friend scampering covering himself with a leaf of a coconut tree!!!

The late night shows:
My home was on NH17 and close to a ITI. One of the houses we had was always rented to the students and invariably I had made new friends everytime I was home. But there was this group of friends I made with whom I had lots of fun. In those days (1985) there was shortage of electricity and hence the nights would be pitch dark. The late night show in those times would end at 9 o’clock. Me, Das and Lukose would catch turtles from the well and plant a candle on the shell of the turtle and leave it on the road. When the people mostly half drunk would approach our house we would set them on the road. They would freak out like crazy. We would invent many tricks to scare the villagers, until one day, we came to know that a festival in the village temple had been announced to scare the evil spirits away! That’s when we realized we had enough, any more and we would get caught!

The mango farm:
In a place close to my dad’s house was a mango farm. The trees there bore fruits such that we just needed to throw a stone and at least three juicy mangoes would fall down. We would bite the mangoes till the juice drips all across the face and hands. Alas, the trees aren’t so fruit bearing any more.

The multiplication tables:
I remember in the middle of the night during my childhood, once the sun set, there used to be a ritual of my grand ma reading the gita and all the kids sitting around listening to it, and then each of us children would have to recite a multiplication table from 2 to 20. Phew! I always used to mess up and would have to keep repeating it all night long! Wonder whether these tables are helping me. What is 24 x 25? There is always a calc application on the computer. Well, my dad did not know, computers would be these advanced one day!!

The goods train ride:
Well this is not to be tried by anyone! We tried it and were lucky to survive, but looking back, it was a huge blunder which would have cost everybody dearly! Me and a cousin of mine would like to venture into the fields in the night for some adventure. Once my cousin had an idea. Everyday at a particular hour, a goods train used to pass by and slowed down. Our plan was to catch it while it is running, get off the next station and then return back! We did and reached back before it was morning. The train used to slow down at every station those days and we could get off easily, but looking back, it could have been VERY dangerous!

There are many more incidences, but I guess these were the top rated ones which I am absolutely nostalgic about. These are some experiences that many in my family don’t know. So if they are shocked, please, it all happened a long time ago!!!!

Well as usual, my list of taggers, I don’t have any… sorry about that!