Summer Vacations, then and now

Remember the time when you used to wait all year for those summer breaks where you thought you would do everything you had been planning for?  Summer time is the most awaited time of any student’s life. It gives them a break from the scorching sun and blazing heat. However, students love them because they bring a sense of calmness due to the vacations. It frees them from the monotonous and dull routine of school and students. If nothing else, summers usually make us all a tad nostalgic. The season takes us all the way back to the end of exams, and the two months of summer break, a time that never fails to put a smile on our faces. We have all grown up wanting to go back to the days when nothing in the world bothered us and we were just a bunch of children who played and laughed and enjoyed ourselves like there is no tomorrow. Even its memory gives us a sense of satisfaction and smile. When I recall my childhood days which cannot be compared with today’s kids with ‘I pad’, I feel a triple wistful. As kids we needed so little to be happy. Our mother’s native place used to be our favourite holiday spot. We would habitually retreat there for our two-month long summer vacations. We didn’t have Amazon prime or Netflix, we had one channel to watch Doordarshan in which we looked forward to the Sunday movies. Ramayana, Mahabharata, Rangoli, Chithrahaar was a delight! We played kalla police, hide and seek, seven stones, teacher games. Regardless of the weather we would wake up at 6 A.M. we never had fast food, chats or junk every other day. We ate home cooked food and bottled water was such a luxury, we drank straight from tap and never fell sick. Five bucks would buy us ice candy,sweets, marbles etc. We travelled everywhere by bus which was an adventure where the biggest treat would be to get the window seat. We played and played till dark and sunset was our alarm. Monsoon was such a joy that we played in the muddy waters of the fields and get our clothes dirty.  We didn’t have any scooty, or electric bikes. We had cycles and we were damn proud of them. How can we forget our favourite summer fruits? Mangoes were the best accompaniment. We now have a generation of extremes, either staring without blinking at the ‘I pads’ or learning how to study by rote. We no longer let them smell the earth. Children as young as 7 are spending evenings in the coaching centres.  Sometimes, it makes more sense to take your child out of the race. In the long run, isn’t it better to lose some marks, rather than a childhood? Many of the kids today will never know how it feels to be a real kid. We had very little but happiness was maximum. We also survived and lived, gave birth to a new generation and brought them up! We were the lucky generation. We grew up before technology ruined our childhood adventures. Oh! Those two months of childhood bliss!