Right now mercury is soaring in Mumbai, cant tolerate the heat anymore.I am avoiding goin out in daytime heat as far as possible, and spending time at home with AC on in full blast, sipping Packaged lemon drink and gulping down bowls of icecream. As I am sitting and enjoying the peaceful ambience I remember my Childhood days during hot summer months.
Summer means long vacation from school, being at home with mom dad , my elder sis n my dog Begam. We used to wake up early in morning by 5 am ( my parents being early risers, waking at 4 am on daily basis!!).Used to go for early morning walk with dad n sister, sometimes taking the unruly dog with us. Other days Dad will take us out in car in early mornings to give driving lessons to my sister. Coming back home, I used to assist my dad to pluck flowers from our garden for Puja purpose. The garden used to be full bloom with all those flowers like Tagar, Rajanigandha, Jaba, Kathchapa, Moragjhuti, Aparajita , Madhabilata, kolke n bougainvilla. It was an amazing sight, n still now, as I am sitting here, in Mumbai, in confines of my room, I can feel the sweet fragrance of all those flowers, that used to fill my heart with an amazing peace n satisfaction.
Summer months also meant assisting my sis in bathing our huge Pure Breed Alsatian dog. I used to enjoy all the commotion of filling up the buckets using hand pressed Tubewell, lathering the dog with soap, the shaking off of water n soap by the dog ( n I used to get drenched by the act), my sis screaming orders to me to keep the dog chained and pour more water on her with the tin mug...Finally the task used to get over n we used to keep Begam chained outside to dry up a bit, or else she wud jump on bed n sofa in her wet coat!!! It was real fun, I should admit.
Next we used to take bath. Mom used to fill up buckets of water for us and soak used lemon pieces in the buckets, so that the bath water would be fragranced like lemon. The cool n refreshing bath we used to take in lemon-scented water will definitely surpass the spa bath taken with essential oils in exuberantly priced spa treatment centres.
There was no AC in our times, but rooms used to be cool naturally because of nicely constructed thick walls n pure wooden thick windows. Mom used to shut all windows n doors by 11 am to block the heat. The sound of Ceiling fan ( Polar fans,yeah) revolving, in dark cool rooms used to make us feel sleepy. My favorite Pastime was retiring in my bed after lunch with a big fat story book ( yeah Bengali, definitely), reading 1 or 2 pages n then dozing off to sleep.
Evening, I will wake up with mom calling me in her sweet voice n saying ' Beler Pana ' is ready. The sweet pungent flavor of Beler shorbet will fill my heart, I will rush out of bed and mom would hand me a Tall " Kansar" Glass full of thick sweet smelling Beler Pana topped with "borof Kuchi" that mom had broken from icecubes using Her 'shil-nora'.
After that we used to loiter around in our courtyard in front of the house enjoying the cool evening breeze flowing from River Ganga,sometimes playing antakshari,sometimes playing with my dog .
I do feel at times it was nice to be a child, I miss my childhood summer days filled with fun, happiness n sweet memories.
2 comments:
please do no forget the inevitable singara that used to be a daily visitor in your plate my sissy. Amazing child hood memories we alreay have - I actually did not think of all these till last 2 days. Its so pretty in our home. Its all so very sweet!
I wonder what Mohini will have to say when she grows up! May be she would remember how Mama used to bye and leave for Office and how Papa was actaully invisible for weeks together!
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