Ooh those summers!

I am a die-hard Hyderabad summer fan. Actually no, any Indian summer, except [salty] Chennai summers. Those ones are urggh!!

I have somehow never experienced a summer like the ones back in India in the 6 years I have been here. I miss them! For a long long time (actually maybe even now) I used to be very happy that my birthday was in April because I could eat Totaparis and Rasalus on my birthday;) How silly!

The one thing I loved most about summers, is how carefree you could be. No school, plenty of games, loads of Champaks to read ( I got in the habit of reading Champak @ my aunt's place ), bullying and getting bullied by cousins one and all, drinking Rooh-Afza every couple hours (and that had strict time limitations, you just had to have one every couple hours), that jugful of Rasna concentrate in the fridge, and MANGOES!!!!! All kinds of them. Ahh, how I yearn for them now. Not a decent Mango to be had in the "Land of Dreams" tch..tch..tch...

And then there was the summer nights! Pure bliss. Cool breeze, blanket-free sleep, bliss bliss bliss. During summers, when we used to spend time at another aunt's place, I remember as kids, we used to go up to the terrace, and spray water all over the floor, and run down to dinner. As soon as dinner got over, grab the sleep-time riff-raff and go up to spread out the stuff and enjoy yet another wonderful, cool floor, open-air sleep experience. Ahh the techniques we devised to beat the sun and his heat;) And then we all used to fall asleep slowly one after the other counting the stars!! Wow!

Its difficult to write this blog in an organized way, my! I am writing about something and my mind races to yet another thing. I have to mention my aunt here. When we were young, my mom was working at the time and would leave us at my grandparents. Her youngest sister (my youngest aunt) was attending college then and I was her "chela" in everything. We used to have some zappy times together. I was <10 years old but had opinions about most things already (Now, what can I say about a mature mind;) ) and my aunt would always insist on buying Rasna Orange whenever we went to the street-corner "Kirana" store. She had this very short-temper and so I would always be scared to suggest anything to her;) Once I picked up the courage and said, maybe we should try the Cola flavour and she zapped right back saying, " No orange will do just fine and orange it is". Meek me said ok, and walked away! We still laugh about it after all these years, she still threatens me with Rasna Orange whenever I visit her;)

Then there were the times when we visited my Dad's sister. That was some good times too. My cousin, her son, would never eat a single fruit or vegetable so she would insist on his drinking milk with raw egg mashed right in (yuck! yuck!) every morning. And poor guy would wait for the first opportunity when his mom's back was turned to throw it all into the sink;) And all the while me and my sis would snoop and go tell-all to his mom;) And the times that followed were fun;)!! Then of course the innumerable galli cricket sessions and the Ludo and the Scrabble and the chess sessions. Most summers we would visit Bangalore/Mysore/Tumkur to meet up with my Dad's end of the family. And my uncle would load his trunk with a basketful of mangoes and make my cousin sit in the back seat and this poor guy would be choking on that intense mango smell (Believe me, he HATED it!!) And as usual, me and my sister, would laugh our heads off and that notwithstanding, would eat mangoes ONLY in his presence;)

Lots more memories pouring out, I will probably consider an "Ahh, those summers! - A sequel to Ooh those summers! " soon;)