The evening started with the bell ringing at precisely 4:30 in winters and 6:00 in summers followed by the games of hide and seek, pithoo, king and queen, chain, vish-amrit which were followed by those twilight times ghost/scary stories. Did you know the only way you can identify a ghost is by their feet because they are backwards? Or that the people who kidnap children amputates them and make them beg by the bridge over the canal that ran through our town? Then there were the swimming lessons that all of us joined together: scared and excited to be in water but together. Exploring the military cantonment area on our bikes, getting scared by the guards and finding a route so that we don't have to cross them. Organizing the Republic day function on our roof-top every year (that's how we utilized our winter break), make a temporary stage with saris, arranging chairs, coming up with dance routines, jokes, trivia to entertain our parents (who else would come to see us perform). we once spent entire winter break making cards and put it on the sale. needless to say that we didn't make a profit but it was fun.
Oh ok, I got a bit nostalgic back there, but the point being, I think I had been very lucky to have such great memories and such a nice time while growing up and realizing that not everyone in my generation had similar memories of fun times makes me realize that it was even more special.
Hopefully you guys also had similar memories growing up. If not, then I am curious about what you did for fun?
For guys, there was always cricket, football, trump cards (you wont believe the lengths to which we'd go to have a good collection - cars, cricketers, WWF, bikes).
ReplyDeleteAnd then, there were the "airplane pilot" games we'd play using sticks buried in the sand mound (dumped in a corner of the playground for construction) as the airplane "gears". Ha!
TV was very limited - which I believe is one of the main reasons we had a childhood in the first place!
And how can we forget cycling out into the outskirts of town, swimming lessons and trips to "native place"?
i have very similar memories minus swimming plus skipping rope, badminton etc.. my dad is in air force so the excitement of moving places and shifting houses was always welcome for me. making new friends a part of it. the annual mela (can't remember what it was usually called)in the campus, the picnics, and summer vacations to the hills.. the mangoes and guavas and the shehtoots, all simple but so precious memories..
ReplyDeleteFootball, Cricket, Hide-n-seek and riding my bike with friends...
ReplyDeleteFor me it was a lot of sports, gully cricket, playing vish amrit, dabba ais pais, hide n seek. I also remember me and a few of the 'senior' member of my childhood gang telling the younger children that we were from mars and making up stories about how it was on mars. :) Also, we used to make a lot of 'killas' (mud forts) during diwali. That used to be a fun 'together activity'.
ReplyDelete@ Kiran: oh well, I didn't think about with guys vs girls perspective but guess you are right. Guys do have cricket at all point. They can and do play all the time. Glad you had some great memories too.
ReplyDelete@ Tara: Oh yes, badminton and stealing mangoes and amrood was also a part of our lives. Guess we all have done that. :P
@ PB: Cool sounds like a fun childhood to me, but then I am not a psychiatrist who can evaluate :P
@ Neha: Hahahaha, I like the idea of being a martian child. You guys were pretty creative. :)