The Holidays That Turned From Boring To Fun-Filled

Summer vacations are always fun, especially when you are in school. It is something we all look forward to, each one for their own reasons but we all love our two-month-long summer holidays.

I was in school before the mobile phones and internet days. Well, in those days not every house had a phone. The last day of exams was like any other day. We finished exams at noon and we had to be home before one. But there was one thing that was special about the last exam; we always were leaving on holidays the same night or the next night.

This time, though, our cousins in Mumbai whom we usually visit decided to come and visit us in Chennai. We never liked staying put in Chennai but that didn’t matter, when my cousins were there we always had fun. Also, there was a trip to Ooty planned in between. We were looking forward to that.

They arrived within a week of our exams getting over. We were super excited. We wanted to show them all those places that we would normally play in. But we had a major problem; the place that we usually spend a lot of time in, the mango grove was fenced up now for the mango season. Every year, around the mango season the grove used to be fenced up and then they would remove the fence after the season was over. Once the fencing was removed we would spend all our waking hours in there. We were like monkeys on trees, playing there, eating there and even sleeping there on the branches of the trees.

With the mango grove fenced up, our shortcut to the Adyar river was also gone, we had to walk the roundabout way to reach the river. We never went swimming in the river but we liked to walk up to the river and watch other kids swim and fish. Sometimes those kids would give us fish in plastic bags or glass bottles to carry home and leave in our aquarium at home. My father was generous enough to give us a small fish tank where we could grow fish from the river while the two big tanks had the goldfish, angel, fighter, moontail, gourami and guppy collection.

Our cousins had brought us a whole pile of Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle comic books. They knew we loved books and we hardly got time to read those during school days. They also brought audio tapes of Hindi songs which we always liked to listen. It is not just our cousins we love, but also our Athai and Mama (my father's sister and her husband) who were lovely people who always knew how to keep us children entertained and happy.

Our Mama would take us on long walks to the river and on the way he would pluck prickly pear fruits for us to eat. We would fish and bring back little fish for our fish tank. He would take us around Chennai to see different places and we always had our picnic lunches packed and it would be so much fun.

One day our grandmother decided to send us off the mango grove to go and buy some mangoes. We kids bought the mangoes and while coming back saw some damaged mangoes on the ground. We picked them up thinking who would want damaged mangoes, imagine our fear when the guard came running and shouting asking us not to "steal" the mangoes. We were only little children and did not mean to steal anything. We thought it was damaged and only the squirrels would eat them so picked them. He said he would hand us over to our parents and tell them that we stole the mangoes. Then he saw me, the oldest in the gang and asked where my house was. I told him my grandfather's name and he gave me a strange look and said, "Ok, I will let you go because I know him, but next time I will not let you go. This is your last warning!"

The way he behaved actually had a negative effect on us. Everyday, while we walked to the river we would say mangoes fallen and close to the thorn fence. We would put our tiny little hands in and take as many of those mangoes as possible and then hand it over to the kids that were swimming and fishing in the river. We never ate those mangoes, it was always for those kids but we would pick the mangoes anyway!

We also got to eat lotus seeds, randomly find new paths, make new friends and read a lot during that vacation. Some days we would just drive to Marina beach after ten in the night and sit on the sand and enjoy the gentle breeze till we got tired. Some days we would go to Chit Chat and enjoy a nice plate of bhelpuri and fresh lemon juice. We would play cards and carom board till late in the night and watch the stars lying on the terrace listening to the drama shows on the radio.

Then came the week when we had to go to Ooty! Wasn't that fun! We were going by car. Those days people either had an Ambassador or a Fiat. We had an Ambassador car too. We were four adults and four children in the car. We were all cramped up but we never felt uncomfortable. There was no air conditioning in the car. These days it is unimaginable to get into a car like that!

We had been to Ooty already and this was our second trip. So we got to show off to our cousins our knowledge of the place. We were staying in a cottage and had huge rooms and was nice and lovely! We spent hours walking from one place to another, enjoying the weather and enjoying each other's company. The only problem in Ooty was that it was over crowded because of the school holidays.

After a week of holidaying in Ooty we came back and while my cousins left for Mumbai, we had to leave to Tirunelveli for my maternal aunt’s wedding. While we usually took the train, this time we had to take a bus because our tickets did not get confirmed. Unfortunately, because it was the last minute we could not get tickets to sit together in the bus. While my younger brother and my mother sat in the front of the bus, I sat in the last seat. I was so tired from all the travelling and having fun the previous few weeks that I fell asleep soon after the bus left Chennai.

I had a dream, a nightmare actually where my brother and myself were stuck in a bunker and World War III was going on! Someone dropped a bomb on us in my dreams and I really screamed out loud. The volume was so loud that the bus stopped. What had actually happened was that a truck behind us came full speed and hit the bus resulting in the glass shattering and falling all over me.

It was so long ago that I do not even remember where the accident was. We all got off the bus and stood waiting for a replacement bus to arrive. There were no mobile phones like today, so someone had to go to the nearest village, make a call from the STD booth to the head office and ask them to send a bus. It took them a good few hours to sort out everything and find another bus for us to continue the journey. What should have been a twelve-hour journey took us more than eighteen hours. But we did reach home safely in the end with loads of memories. That is what mattered in the end.

A holiday that was supposed to be boring if we were in Chennai mostly turned out to be one of the best and adventurous holidays ever.