Summers in India, a typical of our tropical climate , bring with it two basic things- bright yellow sunshine (you always wish for less) and bright yellow mangoes ( you always wish for more ). One more thing summers bring that we as kids loved  ( I take the liberty to speak for my entire generation) were the long summer holidays. The months of May and June,  ‘celebrated’ as Summer holidays in India were something that every kid looked forward to. After a long spell of exams and a new session in April , it indeed felt like a well-earned holiday. In fact the main motivation for attending classes in April were those fast-approaching holidays and we spent a fair amount of time day-dreaming about them and planning them.

The real fun began on May 1 , the first day of summer holiday with no early morning hassle of getting ready for school but long hours of cycling in the nearby streets with my sister. Home would welcome us with the cool breeze of a desert-cooler and a glass of sweet ‘Rooh-afza’. Throughout the day  I would play endless rounds of video games , board games and hit-your-sister-with- a-plastic-bat-and-run-for-your-life games. In the evenings my Grand father would take me and my sister to a nearby park where we would go wild and jump around while he would catch up with his grey-haired buddies. He would buy us peanuts coated with mint-chutney from an old man who would always give us a little extra.  On days, mother would give us a tiny allowance to buy a chocobar icecream (quite the in-thing in the 90’s) and we would relish it till the last drop of cream melted and a choco chunk fell on the ground, breaking our hearts with a ‘thud’. As the sun would go down, all the kids were still to be found outside,  playing yet another round of ‘Ice-water’ or ‘Vish-amrit’ as we called it locally.  The tiny streets used to echo with the roar of our laughter and chirping of sparrows ( both found in abundance back then).

Read More