Summer holidays as a young boy in Allahabad , Uttar Pradesh were fun times.
All schoolchildren awaited them anxiously and they were made use of, so to say, from the very first day.
I have fond memories of waking very early on day one of the vacation , making myself a cup of steaming hot tea , picking up the newspapers which had been deftly thrown into the verandah , taking the transistor out into the compound and switching on Radio Ceylon .
The next hour from 6 .00 to 7.00 am was then spent listening to ‘TOP OF THE POPS’ – a well-known and much loved programme . The Radio Jockeys – I guess they were just known as presenters or announcers way back then- played the best music the world had to offer and their speaking was kept to the minimum. I do not remember them giving away freebies or holding radio competitions either.
For a few years, I also remember going to Asansol to visit relatives and then on to Calcutta, to visit cousins who stayed at the Titigarh paper mills a short distance away. However most summer vacations were spent in Allahabad itself.
As we stayed in the Railway colony, there were plenty of friends in and around the vicinity and hence we were never short of good company and things to keep ourselves occupied.
Caroms, Ludo, Snakes and Ladders , Chinese checkers , Chess , Monopoly, Marbles, seven tiles and card games took up large portions of the day but cricket , football and ‘Gulli danda’ took center stage . Evenings were for Kick the can, Police, and thieves!
Be they the indoor games or the ones on the road outside, they were fiercely contested and no quarters were asked for or given. If you were not playing, you were either a vociferous spectator taking sides or a judge or umpire often being judge and jury.
Learning all about Team spirit , Team building , Leadership, Respect , Standing up for oneself, Rules ,skills and expertise in games and above all - good health- were what we gained .
Cuts, bruises, sprains and an occasional fractured arm were all part and parcel of the summer holidays. There were arguments and occasional fights and adults never entered the picture. No one thought of complaining to parents and if by chance one did so, they were ostracized and spent a few lonely days looking on from the sidelines and licking their wounds until such time all was forgiven – then they joined in even more enthusiastically – a lesson had been learnt and was seldom repeated.
Rain, hail, storm or sunshine, the fun and frolic continued. No one had heard of Sunscreen lotion or SPF and being sun tanned or to put it in simple language getting ‘sun burnt’ was expected. Colds , coughs and allergies came and went unnoticed and antibiotics were for critical illnesses only .
Yes, we occasionally suffered from heat exhaustion and a friend once had heat stroke but he was given umpteen cold baths and ‘mango panna’ to drink and he lived to tell the tale for the rest of the vacation. Food was wholesome and fresh air aplenty and everyone looked fresh and happy.
There were also chores to be done like cleaning the house, running simple errands, cycling to the market to purchase meat or to deliver a note to an adult. Even then, a few friends would cycle off together and that too would turn into a mini adventure – buying snacks along the way, breaking plumbs from some tree on the road or climbing into a compound to steal a few guavas from someone’s garden. It was all harmless fun and we had a blast.
Coming to think of it, fruit was high on our agenda. We knew in whose house there were fruit trees and where we could manage to steal some. Mind you - Mangoes, plumbs and guavas were available in plenty in the market and were quite affordable but the thrill of stealing them and not being caught was far too much to resist for a teenager. Being chased by the owner’s dogs, shouted at by the owner and even called thieves were all worth the effort.
I also remember cycling with a friend to our church at about two in the afternoon in the hot sun, jumping into the church compound , climbing a tree and filling a sack with raw mangoes ,then hauling it over the wall and cycling off.
Once the man who looked after the field of fruit trees spotted us and he yelled at us at the top of his voice. We were terrified lest he report us to the parish priest and we be hauled up the next day but all’s well that ends well and we escaped unscathed!
Coincidentally all us teens were very active in the church activities as well and had probably spotted the mangoes few days earlier and planned the heist methodically and to perfection.
Pocket money, if any, was meagre and was spent on marbles, paper sweets and a concoction called ‘Churan’.
Those were days of simple pleasures and simple times and I miss them.
