Summer Vacations

Was thinking this morning as to how April/May nowadays holds no great anticipation. Rewind this to 25 years five or take + 15 in the case of senior people, April 10 seemed to be the day when all worries ceased. The last paper invariably seemed to be Geometry or Marathi . Both the subjects were designed to harass the poor kid. The former because in the parents eyes it was a scoring subject and the latter because the parents could not teach the kid due to lack of knowledge. That 12'0' clock or 6'o clock depending on the school timings was the most awaited. The last one hour in the exam seemed to zip by, glances exchanged with fellow benchmates or parallel friends about the freedom to be granted. If Nelson Mandela had not captured the Walk to freedom so succintly some of our old time memories would have come close. The dinner that day was eaten with a sense of superiority, that parents have no control over our lives for 60 days. It is as if we were tickling toothless and clawless tigers.

The next morning was even greater. Short of demanding a bed coffee ( dont think the concept existed in our homes !!), our yawns would suggest that a bigger crime thn waking us up was not known. Games such as cricket ( with a contri MRI ball), lagori, dabba is spy , what my father used to term as " No money invloved games ".
There was also a huge demand for 50 p an hour bicycles from the local cycle shop.

Circa the early 80's also saw the nights being livened up with a video cassette in the terrace

The week from April 23 to April 30 was a tight one in anticipation of the result , but post May 2nd things would return to normalcy.

There would also be the compulsory trip to the native place in the second class compartments of trains that used to take ages to reach destination. Is it my fantasy that trains no longer run late these days ? You wouldnt know a soul with whom your parents would be merrily chatting away for hours. You second/third cousins couldnt give a damn about you as they would eye you with the same respect that Ganguly does to Buchanan. In all it would be a totally waste of a trip save for the temples and sight seeing, but thou shall not be allowed to crib.

Till the first flush of rains , would mean the buying of the next year texbook/workbook/

classbook with brown covers.

Some things were part of life , till it stopped one day and all that we have is to lead a vicarious life thru our children who have no idea on how much fun their fathers had in the days of no telephone/mobile/TV/laptop/swimming/malls/multiplexes/hill stations.

If only we had a rewind button...