Edited by: Devaki Divan
It’s the end of April 2014. The last day of school before summer vacation. One can’t tell if your face is shining because of the bright sunlight or the zeal and zest for the holidays. Teachers are lenient today; some even generously turn the class into a free lesson. Throughout the school day, you chit-chat with friends about vacation plans. The school day ends with ‘Holiday Homework’ printouts and a scoop of ice cream. You can’t wait to reach home!
The moment you arrive home, you throw off your shoes in different directions and bid farewell to your uniform for 2 months. You switch on the TV and contemplate between watching Shinchan or Taarak Mehta (aah, those were the decisions we were supposed to make). Your favourite show gets interrupted by cherished ads like those of Dermi Cool, Cinthol, Tang, and Glucon-D—a perfect indication that summer has begun. The show is accompanied by lunch—tindoori ki sabzi, tuar dal and roti. Your mother insists on you drinking a katori full of kairi ka panna, you throw tantrums but eventually finish it.
As seen before, the vacations have begun! You must now (mentally) craft a to-do list for the 2 months—waking up late, lots of arts and crafts, Barbie dolls, TV and loads of fun! You and your best friends plan to visit each other’s houses to recreate ‘Jhalak Dikhla Jaa’ or to organize fashion shows for your Barbies. Also, you’re resolute this time to finish your holiday homework in the initial days and even cover a major portion of the syllabus before classes begin!
Moving on, it’s 7:30-8 PM now. Your father is back from his office. You all have dinner together. You are absolutely fond of summers but there’s one thing you dread—IPL clashing with Taarak Mehta, for you know, IPL would reign over the screen for weeks now and you’ll miss out on watching the latest episode at 8:30 PM on most days. You don’t enjoy watching the matches but like those Vodafone ads. It’s 10:30 or 11 PM now and your parents ask you to sleep but you rebel and persuade them to let you stay awake late at night. There’s something about staying awake in the silence, in the isolation that you like, and that you’ll continue to like. You watch The Suite Life of Karan and Kabir, Shake it Up or Best of Luck Nikki—whatever’s screening.
The next morning, you wake up at 11 AM and your Dadi wants you to have Roohafza waala milk. You sip it at a very slow pace like always. You see your mother’s students coming for their classes in the morning as their vacations have also begun. You fight for the remote with your Dada who wants to get updated on the share market but of course Doraemon’s more important.
It’s 4:30 PM now. Your grandparents want to take you to the neighbourhood park. You’re lazy and will get lazier in the future but swings are anyways fun! You spend some time there. You wish for a friendlier neighbourhood where kids played together, or maybe they do so and you’re very shy—we don’t know. You come back home and play with the kitchen set or imagine a shop set-up—you know how to keep yourself entertained. Although on many occasions during the holidays, you’ll complain about feeling bored.
By the way, summers also mean meeting cousins! As an only child, you specifically look forward to this time. You are yet to learn how to express your affection clearly but you love spending time with them. As a few days pass by, you start packing for Nana-Nani’s house. You carry things you will not look at even once after you reach there. You and your mother are finally here at the house. Now, every afternoon, Nani prepares ‘Rasna’ for you all. Nani also asks you fun riddles and narrates one of her classic tales. You eat diced watermelon sprinkled with chaat masala with your Nana. In the evening, you visit ‘Lal Bagh’ with him. At night, the whole family goes outside the house to enjoy barf ka gola. You are ‘Team Red and Green’ while your sister likes kaala-khatta.
Sometimes, you and your sister play ghar-ghar or do dressing up or some other insane shit. Your elder brother often tries to instigate a fight between the two of you and as the time to go back home comes nearby, he succeeds, and you’re thankful for returning (to another) home. But in all seriousness, you love your maternal family. And now, it’s time to meet your paternal family!
At home, your Buas and their children have arrived. You spend time with your cousins on the roof, while eating Maggi and watching 9XM, playing ‘Papa Freezeria’ turn by turn on the desktop, or going to the park nearby. Drama accompanies the 4 of you. You all may also plead with the family to go to the water park or go for a family picnic. Aah, and the frequent visits to ‘Top and Town’—the ice cream parlour. Your father has recently read the article on how their ice creams aren’t real as they are made using vegetable oil, yet he and everybody else enjoys having ice-creams, particularly from there only.
Here comes your favourite part—seeing everybody stay awake till 2 AM together while you get to listen to their discussions. Of course, you love your paternal family too!
Throughout the summers, you’ve enjoyed mangoes (in sliced form, cause you’re not a fan of aam ras yet) and shrikhand and eating ice cubes and drinking fridge ka paani (and not refilling the bottles, oops) and lastly, everybody’s presence <3.
At this point, there’s a week left for your school to reopen. Your parents say that they hardly got to see you in these months because you were too busy with everybody else—“ye toh summer vacation mein gaayab hi ho jaati hai”. One can’t tell if you are feeling gloomy because of the first rain showers or because of the holidays ending. And as always, you hardly could cover any syllabus in the break and you’re left with all the holiday homework. You request your parents to take you to the stationery shop (one of your favourite places to visit in the world!) to buy some chart paper and glitter pens. Your parents help you finish the work somehow before the deadline because you would never want to show up in class with incomplete work.
Finally, it’s the end of June 2014. You hear the auto waiting outside your house. You’re going back to school.