People have always been asked this question, "which according to you is the best part of your life?". The answers can be varied but then if you were to divide it into three major groups it would be thus: 1) Childhood 2) Adulthood 3) old age.
Most of the people say, "Childhood" because clearly it is the best time of the life one can ever have. There are no worries, no immediate problems to solve, no deadlines to meet. Studies, yes they were a problem sometimes but then you also had the vacations to look forward to.
To me as well childhood has been one of the best times of my life. The long awaited summer vacations have always played a major role in those memories. The most wonderful times of my life have been when us all cousins have gone for an outing / picnic etc during the summer vacations.
Why did I suddenly think of this you may ask? Blame it on the so called idiot box! They were filming a show wherein they showed some peaceful country road and some lonely car travelling on it and it suddenly took me back to those long and adventurous trips that us cousins would untertake along with our aunts and uncles.
One of the best "traditions" (has to be called so because of the sheer frequency of it!) was, stopping by a tree and trying to get some fruit from the tree with the help of slingshots ("bechki" as they are called in my mothertongue). All the attempts would be in vain but still there was a satisfaction that we tried. Besides, who wanted to win anyway! We all wanted to eat! :)
On another occasion, we had entered one of the cucumber fields and my uncle had bought an entire basket full of those freshly grown cucumbers. Finishing them later was a tough task ahead of us. Many of our other relatives got a lot of fresh cucumbers as souvenirs from our trip and we advertised them as being freshly out of the field!
Entering the sugarcane fields, cucumber fields, eating fresh fruit vegetables and the stay itself would be such a relief from the hectic school life that in spite of all the problems while travelling (long winding roads through ghats...lots of cucumbers / sugarcanes / wafers / chocolates eaten...you do the math and guesswork as to what they could be ;) ) and the occasional fight between us cousins, we used to still make it a point to all meet up, accomodate ourselves in my uncle's Jeep and travel to places far and wide. This was the time without the cell phones and ipods..and so we didnt have to bother about things like no network coverage or lack of "entertainment" media. Besides, 3/4th of our world (Parents + cousins ; Freinds comprising of the remaining 1/4th, of course!) travelled along. :)
This memory has always stayed with me since my childhood and even now when I get nostalgic my mind always travels to those small villages / beaches where we spent some of the best 2.5 - 3 months of our life every year. It has been long since all of us have met again during the summer vacations (we do not have those vacations anymore. If we get a weekend to enjoy we are happy. Talk about settling for small pleasures of life!), but I am sure that if given a chance to go back to childhood, I would definately like to start off with a summer vacation and also end with one!
Three cheers to all those who are still living that part of their lives, Live it up! Every moment. This is the best time you will ever have before all the mind games begin! :)
1 comment:
This post made me nostalgic, very well written!
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