Those were the Best Days of My Life

Yes, today I am going to talk about the good old days of summer. I like all the four seasons for different reasons and summer always had a special place in my life. The summer when we had plethora of time, the summer which made us sweat but not tired, the summer which made us gaze at the stars and the summer which made us shed our clothes to the minimum. Oh summer ! Oh summer !

Yes, the lovely summer is here again ! But alas ! We won’t be able to do many things that we used to love doing then. That is the price we have to pay for growing up.
And when I was tagged by two people (Mathew & Fleiger the Tagger) to do this Summer Tag, I felt doubly nostalgic. ;)

Yeah, you got me right. Its tag time again. And the rules of the game go like this.

1. Name the person (with link) who tagged you.
2. Describe what you are asked to do, in this case write about eight things you enjoyed doing during summer.
3. Tag five people

The summers remind me of many things & those many things are mostly common among all Indian children. I will try not to repeat or keep it to minimum.

• Food: Watermelons, mangoes, ice creams, Rasna, sweet thandi lassi and home made different flavoured milkshakes were the staple food of my summers. More than solids I survived the scorching heat of North India on liquids. My all-time favourite thirst quenching ice-cream was THE orange bar but sneakily licking the lid of cup ice-cream was so much of a fun not to be missed out and I still do not miss it ! ;)

Later on when I grew up, Nirulas was the place for ice-creams.

• Comics, books: The most of summer vacation afternoons were spent in reading something or the other. Favourites were Archies, Asterix, Tintin, Phantom and Enid Blyton. Also, since Hindi reading was made compulsory :( Champak & Parag became the part as well.

The day new books for new class were brought home, the first job was to put brown covers and then finish off the books one by one.

• Morning Rounds / Sunrise: Getting up early morning was another fun thing for us. All (Well, most) of the neighbourhood kids used to get up early and go for morning rounds discussing the day’s plans while watching the sunrise.
• Dolls: Playing with dolls was another activity for me and I loved that. One of my neighbourly aunts was expert in making cloth dolls with all the minute details including eyebrows & nails. During exam days ‘orders’ were placed to her to make dolls and the summers were spent in playing / marrying them off. All the Barbie dolls were kept aside as they were no match to these dolls.
• Cricket: Later on when I grew up a little and after I was threatened ten thousand times by my mom to throw all my dolls, I took up cricket as an alternative and I am proud to say that it became one of my favourites.

Though I used to represent my school in long jump & races, cricket was never neglected and is still not neglected.

• Climbing Trees: Growing up in the capital city was fun but it was incomplete without the summer trips to grandparents’ place. My grandfather had a huge bungalow with all types of trees and a big garden. The whole area was so big that I used to measure it in kilometers instead of feet / yards ! Obviously, climbing trees and counting the branches or fruits was one major activity for all of us.

• Star Gaze: Sleeping on the terrace and gazing the stars ! What fun it was ! Discussing the constellations, finding the Saptrishi, making the shape of Leo, looking for some satellite or shooting star. Nights were really very short to accommodate all my fascinations.

• Saying AAA….: Last but not the least. Saying Aaaaaaaa (sometimes with your palm on your opened mouth).. in front of the desert cooler or an oscillating pedestal fan. Yes, if you happen to be in North India, I am sure you would have seen or done this. It used to make a very strange funny sound but so were the strange days of that life.

Now that rule no. 1 & 2 are taken care of, time for my favourite rule. ;)

Yeah, you got it right again. Its time to find my victims, my shikaar. So, here goes my list..

Abhi- Your blog needs some delicious summer delicacies. :)) I know you are busy for a month but after that would like to know about your bachpan.
Alok – Would like to know how your summers were spent. Finish your exams and do this tag please.
Lazy – You have been quiet for sometime. We all would like to know about your summer/summer holidays you enjoyed most.
PM – You too are quiet these days. Take the tag now. :)
Prashanth – Never tagged you. Let me grab this opportunity. ;)
MG – There is no other way to know more about you than this tag. :P

Maverick, Sigma & Bach – Be ready, I can see the channel through which this tag is coming your way. ;)
Current song- Summer of ’69 – Bryan Adams