Exams though a hyper tense situation of my student life, had its own share of exciting climax, no, not the bitter sweet results, the VACATIONS!! The days without timetables, the days of endless idleness, endless playing in the sun (little to worry about the tan) and of course endless fun.
The icing on the cake is the trip to pattis’ house, the annual journey. Having packed bags a month in advance, exchanging letters with cousins to coincide dates, booking tickets and busy purchasing all the city fancies to the grandparents and cousins, and endless dreams of the new games to be played and stories to be shared.
The journey would begin with mummy made packed food for the overnight train travel, fights over who is not going to carry that koolkeg (the fancy water container of the nineties) and over who gets to sit at the window seat on the train relishing the last years journey and waking up parents at the wake of every station to ask when do we get down.
Though tired at the final destination, the hugs from grandparents and the hi -fi s from cousins boost us for the next one month. Elaborate family lunches on plantain leaves had crossed legged on the floor, hiding behind the thinnai pillars during a game of hide and seek, WOW, such a relief from the matchbox flats we had spend the remaining eleven months of the year.
The trip would of course include visiting all the nearby temples, the annual fair, the giant wheel rides, and visit to dad’s primary school. The annual Tamil classes from grandpa and of course the brushing of the local vocabulary. The bruises from the attempt to mimic the fellow who just brought down those tender coconuts from the palm that surrounds all round the place is not the only un erased mark that I carry to the present day.
The visit to the family farms would enhance the knowledge on agriculture and water cycle (now the farm vile on Facebook does it. Do farms really exist?) Animals reared by the grandparents varied from the inevitable cow named Lakshmi, the solo hen that sat on its eggs saving them from the eyes of tiger-the stray dog, then a part of every family.
Nights would be a commotion with the entire pack retiring to the single large hall with huge windows, children running with mats and pillow on deciding who gets to sleep close to grandma who will continue on the bed time story of Mahabharata. The eldest cousin would be hisiing to another younger pack, a story of the ghost that walks past the window at midnight, another die hard narration of every family vacation.
The elders had their own fun of not having to pack lunch boxes at 8:00 am, not running to shops at midnights to buy world maps and graph sheets. They were content with the habitual flipping through the remnants of their school diaries, college albums and cherished yellow wedding cards, narrating their share of anecdotes and visiting their long lost friends and ailing teachers.
Having updated on the yearly events for a month and enough of gossips and stories to chew for another eleven months, the packs starts moving back to the cities having updated the latest address and std phone numbers, making a silent promise to write every month and call up on occasions. With heavy hearts and of course heavy bags- for now they are stuffed with the annual rations - from rice and pulses, vathals and vadams , podis and pickles and loads and loads of love and memories.
As I was recalling one of those vacations from the letters from my granddad, preserved in my old school almanac, I was stirred by the nonstop shriek from my 6 year old neighbour. He was sobbing inconsolably that he was not willing to visit his pattis house for the vacation and that he hates her, what??Wait... And above all it is because the poor old lady doesn’t own an air conditioner!!
A child HATES his grandparents because they don’t own an AC?? Before I could recover from the shock of what a consumer culture and comfort zone can do to a 6 year old, the boy’s dad gives me a sheepish grin before muttering to his son,” Hi, Rahul come in, read the chapter on family in the encyclopedia I got you last week”, and a little loudly over at me -“it is just Fifty grands you see, I am very keen on developing Rahul’s IQ level”, staring at the old inland letter in my hand he glanced down at me and said-“Grow up Beta.”
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