With the extended weekend and hubby down with cold (yeah, he can catch a cold in the hottest of weathers), I took up the daunting task of cleaning the bookshelves. We both are ardent readers and consume atleast two books a week each, in addition to the magazines, newspapers, e-papers and blogs. But I digress... So, as I was cleaning, I came across a bunch of albums - my school days' photographs. All thoughts of cleaning flew from my mind as I opened them to relive and cherish the priceless childhood memories...
I loved to play 'House-House' with my elaborate kitchen-set. Even while my bro was very young, I used to make him the Man of the house, give him an empty brief-case and send him to office while I took the skins of peeled veggies from my mom and would cook meals, hang clothes to dry on ropes tied between windows.
I had (and still have) this childhood friend of mine (let's call him H). Now, H was in my school and while returning home, we would hand our school-bags to our mothers and run off ahead, climb the staircases of other buildings and hide till we would see our mothers pass from below. Then we would race ahead and surprise our mums by hugging them.
We played in mud but didn’t catch any germs; played in the pool but didn't catch a cold... It used to be a regular feature for both H and me to try and beat each other in swimming.
H used to have these birthday parties with the most awesome 'Aam-Raas' (Mango pulp / juice) I'd ever eaten. His birthday would also have the most craziest of punishments for 'Passing - the - Parcel' - climb a tree, drink 10 glasses of water, jump over the gate etc.
In school, the last period of the day used to feel like the longest. We used to eagerly wait for bell to ring & to run off to the play-ground / auditorium to play. PT (Physical Training) periods used to become TP (Time-Pass) for all of us.
We used to write in the best of our hand writing only to get a star in the class work copy.
I used to play a lot of DOS games. PC-MAN, BRICKS were my favourites.
I have played dozens of pranks. We were a group called Chunky-Monkey' group - a gang of sorts and we used to have immense fun.
It was a matter of pride to become the monitor of the class. And I was the undisputed monitor from Standards three to ten since I was one of the most talkative student around.
We used to be the happiest when teacher wrote those four words in our diaries -Tomorrow is a holiday. It was the best purpose of the school diary.
There are lots of memories where these came from... Vibrant, energetic, innocent and pure fun - school days were some of the best days of my life.
