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hot summer days of yesteryears
Jul. 24th, 2011 12:19 pmSummers were/are hot in Hyderabad. It's not uncommon for temperatures to go beyond 40C. There were no AC units back then. Although, our houses where we lived came with one in the living room. It was a huge box that we had to water to get it to work continuously. We were privileged to have this because we lived on campus of an international institute. But we hardly used it. We were hardly home.
Summer vacations were the best! The campus where I grew up had around 20-30 families. All around the same age group. So, almost every home had children of different ages. Because campus was a secured area, our parents hardly ever worried about our safety. We would run all about the playground all over the institute grounds (1,390ha). It's an agricultural institute so there was/is a huge diversity of crops, trees, etc. Oh what fun it was!
Even before moms and dads got up, we would have been up by 6am, brushed our teeths, got dressed and would run out the door to meet with other kids and take a long walk around the grounds. We would come back only around 8:30-9am, because we would be hungry. Have some thing to eat and then we would be out again. Most of the time, we would be at the swimming pool. If not the swimming pool, we would by the playground or just play whatever games. We would be out for another few hours. Around 11ish we would head home. Take baths. Have lunch. And rest at home in the afternoon. Usually my paternal grandmother would be staying with us. So she would tell us stories. If maternal grandpa and grandma were there, grandpa would give us some English or math lessons. Tata (grandpa in Telugu) also would teach us Telugu. Around 4 or 5pm, we would all go out again.
This time to the sandbox - yes, the one where you would practice long/short jumps. We didn't know that it was for that. For us, it was a patch of beach that transformed into castles with moats and rivers and mountains. A completely different world! Or we would play a game of dodgeball on the parking lot - a cemented road. We would use our shoes/sandals/slippers to form the boundaries. Of course, when any mom came out, we would all run to wear our shoes/sandals/slippers.
Some days we would go pick fruits off of trees. Mostly mango trees, which is not allowed by the institute. So, it was always done under strict conditions. One would keep a lookout for the security, and the others would throw their slippers at the targeted fruit. Most of the time the slipper would get stuck on the branch and so someone had to climb the tree to collect it. And often picked and dropped the mangos from the branch. If the security came by, we would be found to be picking mangos that fell to the ground - completely acceptable! :D
As the evening came, dads would come home from work. The "namaste uncles" would begin. And slowly mothers would venture out and the "namaste aunties" would commence. Uncles and aunties would go on their long evening walks, while we continued play. As the sun would set and they would return it would be time for us to head home too. But most of us didn't.
Around 7:00pm, all you would hear around campus are the moms in all different Indian languages, saying the same thing, "come home now!" and slowly leading to, "come home now or else!"
Once we were home, all washed up, it was time for dinner. Maybe half an hour of TV and time for bed.
That was our typical summer day. Once in a while my cousins would be over. But we would do the same thing with them. And on weekends, the exciting thing to do was go on a car ride!! and on the occasional Saturday or Sunday, we watched a movie! But otherwise it would be a lot of storytelling, lot of board games, lot of laughs. Good times!
