My Summer Vacation

Where did you go for summer vacations this year? Which hotel did you stay in? How many spots did you cover in sight seeing? 

Do these questions sound familiar to you? If yes, welcome to the vacation of an urban dweller!!!

Now, summer vacations are all about outings, food and shopping. If not outings, its all about summer camp and learning something new. Our summer vacations had a little bit of the later but lesser of the former.

We used to go out of station for long durations. But not in a hotel, essentially at some relative's place. It was either grand parents place, or at father's brother's place or father's sister, or mother's brother or mother's sister's place. Whichever home had a lady who was comparatively free and other cousins around, used to be our summer vacations location. Usually a combination of two or more places. 

It was really not only about the homes we stayed, but the adventurous MP bus journeys and the fun filled long non AC railway journeys. 

Summers was always about the vish amrut we played in the mud, the nadi pahad we played on the cemented porch, the rented cycles my cousin used to get from some local vendor for teaching cycling to me and my cousin sister, the bhatukli game we all sisters used to play, the ludos, snakes and ladders, carrom, card games and most importantly chess- I remember me and my cousin used to play chess like we were no one less than Vishwanathan Anand. 

Food was all about the fresh curd my aunt used to make daily, the jalebis and moongodes my grandfather used to get every Sunday, the aam ras we had occasionally, the cool aam panaha and super cool matka water in a really hot Vidarbha summer. 

A very satisfying food was the bhatukli food. Bhatukli is nothing but simulation of kitchen using small utensils or what we call ghar ghar when my daughters play. My grandmother used to give us murmura or wet poha granules to fill our small plastic and wooden cookers and kadahis. Finishing off those bits of meals was immensely satisfying. 

My favourite work used to be watering the garden and plants. The aroma of wet soil and the colour of wet green leaves makes me speechless with nostalgia. A very important work we all cousins used to avoid unanimously was filling up water in the coolers. I remember once, me and my cousin put the pipe for filling the cooler and started watching movie on television. We got so engrossed in the movie that water itself overflowed, travelled the entire bedroom, the common area till the drawing room to tell us that please switch off the tap! 

We all cousins stayed together for almost the entire vacation. We used to be minimum four of us together. And used to fight also. But fights were essentially about smaller kulfis, bigger mangoes, missing chances in card games and extra time while cycling. 

Like I mentioned earlier, learning was a very important part of all my vacations. (May be because essentially I am a learner) We learnt rangolis, flower making, embroidery, card making and many more things that we discovered and invented. 

Those old days are forever fresh in my memories. They essentially form a part of my recharge system. Visiting those places and meeting my cousins still is an yearly routine that detoxifies me of the urban clatter. Though the places are not the same and neither the cousins but there is some nostalgia that keeps me recharged throughout the year.