Monday, April 16, 2007

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

31 comments:

Bendtherulz said...

Summer times are nostalgic...infact just recently a kid asked me if I get "Holidays " like they do...and I had to take deep breath and answer in -ive...yikes...lovely recounting...!

I had left a comment where Blogger asked all the commentators to leave their recounting....so here I go -

8 things for summer...when I was a kid Right !!

1)Scampering on a tree and imagining that I was a Monkey King.
2)Playing kanchas and matchbox "chappein" & gullidanda
3)Biking
4)Getting Tetanus shots
5)Travelling to NaniMa's place ( no it was not fun as everyone around us was eithe too old/too young - only good part was getting to buy loads of books & new games.
6)Camping in "middle of nowhere"
7)Getting good head massage ( mom use to think that would help in increasing my intelligence - alas I am still retarded :)
8) Sleeping round the clock !!

Ok done !!

( few simialr one ehh....btw camping in middle of nowhere gave us nothing but to gaze at stars all night !!)
Tk care -

Unknown said...

Summer times was always fun. Especially the gathering at my grandfather's place. There would be so many cousins and we played hide and seek in his huge house and the vast jungle that surrounded it.

Our games were interrupted only by the rations of mangoes and litchied and several delicacies. When it grew dark we retreated to a huge room that was converted into a library. My aunt had a huge collection of comic books from the 60-80 and all the kids would sit there pouring over the books, telling ghost stories.

And then the rains would start when the vacations were drawing to a close. Those days were so much fun... I wish we could turn back time :D

I felt too lazy going back to your travel blog to comment. Please accept my aplogies. Check out some more pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/vibhanshu

Sigma said...

Hey! really really nice post ... brought back all the memories from those summer holidays ....
and you have a wicked mind ;-) you are not only selecting victims directly, but indirectly too!!

Anonymous said...

My favourite season is winters but summer always has special memories attached...as in vacation time, whole of my house is filled with cousins and all, we have so many icecreams, playing cricket and everything in the middle of hot burning days..
nice tags...

Ash said...

Summers were fun.....nostalgic post!

Ranjeet said...

Nice Post! Reminds me more of "Wo Kaagaz ki kashti, wo baarish ka paani" :-)

Cuckoo said...

BTR,
You are the cleverest !! Did your tag here itself. Eh ?
Yes, there ought to be some similarities among all of us but weren’t they wonderful ??

Oh, I can always say “Koi Lauta de mere beete hue din “.

Vibhanshu,
I welcome you once again.
Oh, it was so much fun to go to our grandparents’ place every summer. All the cousins together and no one really bothered. This post really made me very nostalgic... could have written at least 30 points. :))
Yeah, hide & seek, Pithhu, cricket, stories, comics, movies, paper boats, attacking the fruits, star gazing… how much fun it was !

Please accept my apologies.. No need to apologize. Hota hai kabhi-kabhi. :) Glad that you came & commented. That’s what is more important.

I checked your pictures. Lovely they are.. all of them !! Left some comments also. I have just started uploading my pictures. Don’t get much time. Will do it as & when my travel blog gets updated. Keep checking. And yes, keep coming. :)

Sigma,
Thanks dear. It brought so many nice memories that I didn’t want to stop. Wanted to tag you but knew it’ll come to you anyway. ;) Don’t worry, I have kept another tag for you. ;)

Wicked me ?? Ha Ha.. when it comes to pass on the tag, I generally forget my counting & have to remind myself to stop. ;)

Cuckoo said...

Mona,
I welcome you to my blog.

Yes, my favourite is also winters but other seasons too have some special nice memories. And weren’t they wonderful ?? More so, this tag is about summers.
Nice tag ? Want to take it ?

Thanks for your visit. Keep coming.

Ash,
I agree. Thank you.

Ranjeet,
Thanks. It brought so many nice memories that I didn’t want to stop. Wanted to tag you but not now.. waiting for you to have one more blog. ;)
I wanted to write about paper boats as well but since this is summer tag & I had so many pts, kept it for some other day. ;)

”Wo Kaagaz ki kashti, wo baarish ka paani".. You too like that song ?? It is lovely. Let me play it now. :))

Anonymous said...

I remember, when we were little even we were also used to do that "aaa.." part. Yes summer meant mango, cricket, soccer and lots of lots of game time and as reading is concern that means only the comic books during summer time...not now but ofcourse this is when I was kid.

on second thought, I still do most of these things in summer except "aaa.." part and comic books. ;)

Anonymous said...

Talking into a spinning fan must be a universal activity Cuckoo because I did it as a kid too. I would put my face right next it and
say in a flat monotone, "Exterminate!" and I would sound just like a Dalek from Dr Who!
But I prefer the cool rather than hot, sweltering summers.

Cuckoo said...

Tarun,
Oh it was so much fun when we were kids. Full carefree life. Isn’t it ?

Yeah, I also try to do as much as I can including “aaa..” ;)

Mur,
Glad to see you here. Ohhh I didn’t know about that universal activity !! I thought only Indian children do those weird things. ;)
So, can I assume that you are also ready to take a tag from next time ? I’ll include you as well in my list of 'victims'. ;)

My favourite season also happens to be winters but since I was tagged by two fellow readers to do this summer tag, I had to write about summers.

I’ll definitely write about winters sometime. :)

mathew said...

Thanks for taking up the tag..Can almost relate all the incidents you have mentioned except the doll parts..ANd also remember lazily enjoying Tintin..which a huge favourite of mine..
this tag is special coz it is very nostalgic..

Btw i ll sure take up the tag..i was actually enjoying bliss in swiss last week and now finding hard to get back to work..please excuse my laziness..it is chronic!! ;-P

Keshi said...

u were so like me Cuckoo :)

Keshi.

Cuckoo said...

Mathew,
You are welcome, rather I must thank you for giving me this tag. I relived my childhood through this post. :)

Ahaa ! Waiting for your post on Swiss.

Keshi,
:))))

Maverick said...

great post,it reminded me of my summer days, will write it when i get tagged, thx for the caution :)

Shruti said...

hey thanks for visiting me blog...and its nice to hear that you do lot of good work for old ones...take care...

Abhijeet said...

orange candy bar..wheeeee!!!!i just had one on saturday...nothing beats slurpin on the candy and balancing the ice on both sides of the stick so that it doesnt fall...again wheeeeeee!!! :)

Abhijeet said...

btw comment on all the ???????? in my blog pleej :)

Cuckoo said...

Maverick,
Thank you. Yes, be ready. :)

Shruti,
Thank you.

Abhijeet,
Hee hee .. Nothing beats that orange candy bar.. thirst quenching, slurping, dripping, trickling till your neck and elbows, licking & of course not letting the ice fall.. :))

btw comment on all the ???????? in my blog pleej.. The spelling of your "pleej" is wrong. The correct spelling is “pullleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaz” ;)

Enjoy !!

Abhijeet said...

no no no...its pleej...please or pulleeeeeeaz is called pleej in hindi ;)
btw "thirst quenching, slurping, dripping, trickling till your neck and elbows,"....icecream khati thi ya usme nahati thi???neck and elbow???

Cuckoo said...

Ha Ha...

icecream khati thi ya usme nahati thi??? Haven't you experienced it anytime ? Tch Tch.. bad luck.. you are missing on something. ;)
Try it today or maybe tomm afternoon under the sun when it melts fast and then let me know. :)

Alpine Path said...

Great post! Reminds me of all the fun I used to have with cousins and friends... the games, the mangoes that we plucked and so many more! :) We had fun with the fan too!

Mumbai Guy said...

Cuckoo Ji, I am short of time so couldnt finish your tag. But will write on this summer topic over the weekend. Thanks for the invite tho.

Cuckoo said...

Alpine,
Welcome to my blog. Glad that you liked the post. Yes, I can say those were the best days of my life. :)

Thanks for your visit & blog-rolling me. Keep coming.

Mumbai Guy,
MG, that's what I am going to call you.
MG Ji, As long as you do the tag I don't mind it. ;) It's a nice topic to boast on. Quite nostalgic one.

Happy memories !!

Mumbai Guy said...

MG Ji? doesn't that take rythm far off?

As long as.... waah ji waah. Dhamki straightaway eh?

Summer time memories a topic for boasting? Cuckoo Ji, kya ho gaya tuje aaj?

Sugarlips said...

Lovely post Cuckoo...Reminded me my summer days back home and the AAAA thingy lol it was so much fun hain na? Kulfi was my fav in summer :)
Thanks for sharing beautiful summer reminisces :)

Stay Beautiful...!

Cuckoo said...

MG,
Kuch Nahi. Cricket ka bukhaar hai. :P

Sugarlips,
Thank you & you are welcome.

Anonymous said...

it was fun to read how miss india grew up :D
u had home made different flavoured milkshakes?? sooo envy!
i want to try sleeping on the terrace too!
love playing doll. i still want to do that sometimes. hehe..

Leziblogger said...

Thanks cuckoo! I haven't been able to blog since past few weeks but will do justice to your tag!(hopefully before the summer ends!)

Cuckoo said...

Nikichan,
You are quite funny at times just like me !! ;)
Thanks.

Lazy,
I haven't been able to blog since past few weeks.. That was one of the reasons of tagging you !! ;)
Enjoy the summers !!

Anonymous said...

Climbing trees is something we have in common. How I used to love summer vacations.