My Summer Vacation

In less than 15 days from now the schools will reopen and if Mother Nature is mercifully then students will plod their way towards another academic year with their newly acquired rainy shoes (gum boots) soiled with muck. For some the just elapsed summer vacations will remain like a speck of memory in their soon to be re-formatted brains while for some it will be remain as an essay titled “My Summer Vacation” to be graded by an English teacher who thinks she is of a Victorian descent.

Don’t be surprised as to how I am sure about all this; cos thanks to my parents and now my nephew I seem to consider myself intrinsically involved with the Indian Academic calendar.
Back in school I always thought that vacations were like a rude shock. You think I am out of my mind, but you see the light once you go through the different events which made up my summer vacation in the year 1996 AD.

1) The “hyper active” friends: Vacations are a time to relax. I believe that even now and I am damn sure that I had this view even back in school all through my primary, secondary and higher secondary. Most of us would have been blessed with “hyper active” friends. Yeah, yeah I am talking about the same bunch of guys who used to stay in your building or locality and on the very first day of the summer vacation call for your blood to join them in a cricket match at 6:30AM!!!! You could not lay asleep cos now for the entire month you had to be a part of the team and turning up late for a single match (more so the very first) would not go down well with the management (My building board for control of cricket was much more strict than a certain PCB).

2) The ‘hobby class’: The cricket would not go all day cos now with the vacations TV viewing was a bit less restricted. But that was only after the “Summer Vacation” supplement of the local daily was thoroughly read, the six differences between the 2 pictures meticulously pointed out and yes that picture of the deer and the butterfly was colored with crayons. After this ordeal when TV viewing would begin, in would enter Sunita aunty with a proposal for my mother.
Sunita aunty: So have Advait’s summer vacations begun?
Mother: Yes, today is the first day of the vacation.
Sunita aunty: Oh, this is great. Have you heard that my eldest daughter has just started her own drawing class. I told her I will talk to Borate aunty, she will definitely enroll Advait as he has his summer vacation.
Mother: …
Sunita aunty: We all know how Advait is good at his drawing. Oh what is this. Look how well he has coloured this deer. (looking at the just colored deer. It was more of a modern art job, Mr Hussein would have loved it though)
Sunita aunty: He can start right from today. Why waste a day na.?? He can come over at 10:30am. Don’t worry about the fees, we will take care of that na….(sheepish smile).
Mother: huh…..ok…

3) The load shedding: You are done with cricket, you are done with the ‘hobby class’. Post lunch at 3:00PM you frantically switch on Cartoon Network. Its time for the POWER ZONE to begin. You are ready to absolve everybody (the hyper active friends, Sunita aunty and her eldest daughter) of their sins as you are sure of the feast: SWAT CATS followed by the CENTURIONS followed by THE REAL ADVENTURES OF JHONNY QUEST, when at 3:15PM the lights go off. It is too early in the scheme of things to dream of inverters (we are talking about circa 1996 AD).

4) The uninvited guests: The lights come back at 5:00PM and you thank your stars that atleast I would get to see some WWF action (yes it was WWF then not WWE) when within 5 minutes the doorbell rings and in walk Mr and Mrs Ramamurthy. They are fellow teachers in my mother’s school. Don’t forget that the teachers also have a summer vacation at the same. How I hate their kid who at this very moment would be lapping up the WWF bouts.

5) The journey: Just a week into the vacation, where atleast for the last 2 days I was able to catch up with some cartoons and a few wrestling matches thanks to the endless repeats, my mother stumbles upon the brilliant idea of visiting her brother in Nagpur. Sorry, did I say stumble. I was wrong, infact it was already planned and the rail tickets were booked well in advance. But what is the use of telling a 12 year old a week in advance that he would be taken to Nagpur to his uncle’s place and that he will be back only a week before his school re-opens. Nagpur in the heat of May, just imagine!!!

So Mrs Rodrigues (my English teacher not sure about the Victorian descent) this is my essay on “My Summer Vacation”. When you grade it please take it with more than a pinch of salt!!!!

P.S: My subsequent vacations were much better and I am sure my parents did not refer to the Reader Digest’s “10 ways of Effective Parenting” cover story !!!!