Summer Holidays

With temperatures hovering in mid-90s, summertime is in full swing. I have been watching the weather channel on the TV. It has been unusually warm all across the U.S. with record temperatures recorded from coast-to-coast. No matter where you live, you are most likely experiencing heat and humidity that is well above normal.

Whatever be the temperatures, summertime means vacation, fun and freedom for the kids. I recall nostalgic memories of the long summer vacations that I had during my school days. In those days, there were special summer discounts for groups of kids to travel by trains. Parents made the best use of the rail concessions and sent the kids to visit grandparents or uncles. Long distance trains were typically hauled by steam locomotives that used coal for fuel. As a child I was extremely fascinated by the majestic steam locos and the sound of shrill whistles they emitted besides lots of black smoke.

My younger brother and I used to travel over 800 miles by train to visit my grandmother and maternal uncle who were living in a real hot city called Pudukottai in South India. Like us, my cousins will travel from different directions to the same destination. There were about a dozen kids in the age group of 8-15 all congregating in the same house around the same time.

In my uncle's home, there was no TV, not even a radio. Nevertheless, we were never short of entertainment. We enjoyed all kinds of 'inexpensive' fun. There was no swimming pool anywhere in the city but then there was a pond nearby that served as a pool to all. We spent hours in that not-so-clean greenish pond. We enacted small plays at home with a sizable audience of neighborhood kids who cheered us and clapped hands for every little act. With so many children around, I must admit that food was somewhat scarce but we never cared much. After all, with so much fun, hunger was not a priority. We ate whatever was available like for instance peanuts, jack fruit,sugar cane and many other forms of uncooked edibles.

I had my thrills with a 'Kodak' box camera that I considered a great treasure. It was gifted to me by my father after my repeated pleas over several years. Thanks to the kind intervention of my dear grand ma, my father ultimately yielded to the pressures and bought the camera. The pictures that I took with that box camera serve today as a mute testimony to my photographic skills and the wonderful summer vacation that I enjoyed with my dear relatives.

Occasionally, my uncle used to take all of us to a local movie theatre that was nothing but a huge warehouse type shed. It had no side walls but only a sloping roof, a screen and a projector room. Movies were shown in late evening only after it became dark. Typically, a movie lasted about 4 hours that included a long interval during which snack/soda hawkers will swarm inside the theatre. The noise levels used to be atrocious and the mosquitos terrible.

Thinking back, I have nothing but great admiration to my old grand mother who successfully managed over a dozen energetic kids at home. She hardly slept and kept a constant watch on us. She held small contests for the children that kept us out of trouble at least for some time. All the children happily ran many errands for her - getting groceries, vegetables, posting letters and drawing water from the deep well. She was a tireless woman who was a great inspiration to me.

Holidays never last too long. Soon, we all returned to our respective homes to join school and restart our studies. My dear cousins (and their families too) have all grown up and live in different parts of the world. Pitifully, some of them are no more.

Those were glorious summer vacations that would never ever return.