Summer

The word conjures a picture of bliss & relaxation. The Indian summers tend to be hot. The children have holidays after their exams & no routine. Playing in the courtyard, backyard or climbing trees for raw mangoes.

When you buy mangoes from the market, Alfonzo or Kesar, they are juicy, delicious but they don’t have the thrill of getting a fruit directly from the tree. Cutting it & using salt , chilli powder to taste , the raw mangoes green & hard are the best.

Today’s article starts with’ Once upon a time, a very real time , not so long ago, Indian Summers were about watching the clock slow down. Children shed their baggage of schedules & slipped into long lazy days filled with mangoes, mischief & the rarest thing…. unsupervised time.

Inventing games out of air, no expense, full enjoyment. Lying on cool floors under creaking ceiling fans, watching the play of sunlight through the curtains. Trying to catch the sunbeam or dancing in that beam trying to catch the aerosols.

Turning cardboard boxes into dolls houses or something else. Fighting & making up with siblings & cousins all in the span of an afternoon. It was the golden age of boredom & it was beautiful. Ramya te baalpan.

Later the age of over achievement transformed summer into a season of wonder into a gap to be filled with workshops. In chasing productivity, the poetry of the long days was written over.

Now, the West is waking up to the joy of letting children do nothing for a few precious weeks. The parent stepping back to let the child have his own time.

The slow time allows friendships to enrich lifelong bonds . It teaches children to sit quietly, comfortably with themselves & make room for curiosity , find joy.

Aren’t they the best memories, the only ones we cherish ? When we don’t have siblings or cousin to share our time, what do we do?

Don’t you remember the relatives coming over unannounced & staying for days together. That reunion taught us so many things. Our parents cannot teach us everything. In their prime they are earning for the family. So the gaps got filled by these relations.

I still remember both my grannys taking over the household when my parents went to London & the US for a fortnight. My cousins & my siblings had to obey their rules. It was the first & final occasion without my parents.

Later both of them passed away & I have memories of the wonderful stories they told us. It was way better than emersion of oneself in reading. Enid Blyton did have a say but the living idols around made my summer!

Nowadays, summers come & go , I only have my memories to sift through.