One of the fondest memories I have of my childhood are the long
summer afternoons spent at my grandmother’s place. Every summer during my school
life would be spent in ‘Mansehra’, home town of my mom’s side of the family. I
think that is where my absolute love for nature started. The afternoons were
‘THE’ epic point in our lazy days. That’s when the entire older generation would
fall asleep and we would have the whole three story house to our selves. And
what feeling that was! The rustic old cupboard full of old books was my all time
favorite. I use to feel like a detective uncovering hidden secrets of our
elder’s past lives. Not that we ever found their secret diaries or anything, but
that eerie feeling, that hope that made us go through those books endlessly. Ah
the smell of those books, the light breeze, the long endless afternoons and
above all that feeling! The feeling of being part of something big, of
uncovering the unknown – I remember going through the old drawers, chests,
cupboards – looking for little treasures, weaving stories around them and then
enacting them to make it all more real. I think the greatest treasures found
were the really old albums; old pictures we would collect and wait for the
evening when some grown up would explain who is who in the pictures – it gave a sense of being connected to our roots, I guess. Apart from exploring the house,
our absolute favorite activity was visiting the park right across the house. I can’t recall how our elders use to bring us back in! that part was our absolute heaven – it had two slides under a huge tree which I always believed to have some sort of magic. It had squirrels and birds. It had a bug pond with tadpoles and little fishes. And it wasn’t like a plain ground park; it had benches and steps and above all segregated areas separated by bushes. We use to look for leaves and flowers and god knows what! For us it was a huge maze where we discovered and learnt!
Other adventures included picking fruits from neighbor’s gardens,
entering the small school that would be closed for vacations through secret
passages and have the whole school play ground to our exclusive use! One day we
also discovered a pine cone garden. We spent the entire day collecting pines
through the stacks of dry leaves. Ahhh…those were the days man! Those were the
days.
“Summer afternoon- summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful
words in the English language.”
summer afternoons spent at my grandmother’s place. Every summer during my school
life would be spent in ‘Mansehra’, home town of my mom’s side of the family. I
think that is where my absolute love for nature started. The afternoons were
‘THE’ epic point in our lazy days. That’s when the entire older generation would
fall asleep and we would have the whole three story house to our selves. And
what feeling that was! The rustic old cupboard full of old books was my all time
favorite. I use to feel like a detective uncovering hidden secrets of our
elder’s past lives. Not that we ever found their secret diaries or anything, but
that eerie feeling, that hope that made us go through those books endlessly. Ah
the smell of those books, the light breeze, the long endless afternoons and
above all that feeling! The feeling of being part of something big, of
uncovering the unknown – I remember going through the old drawers, chests,
cupboards – looking for little treasures, weaving stories around them and then
enacting them to make it all more real. I think the greatest treasures found
were the really old albums; old pictures we would collect and wait for the
evening when some grown up would explain who is who in the pictures – it gave a sense of being connected to our roots, I guess. Apart from exploring the house,
our absolute favorite activity was visiting the park right across the house. I can’t recall how our elders use to bring us back in! that part was our absolute heaven – it had two slides under a huge tree which I always believed to have some sort of magic. It had squirrels and birds. It had a bug pond with tadpoles and little fishes. And it wasn’t like a plain ground park; it had benches and steps and above all segregated areas separated by bushes. We use to look for leaves and flowers and god knows what! For us it was a huge maze where we discovered and learnt!
Other adventures included picking fruits from neighbor’s gardens,
entering the small school that would be closed for vacations through secret
passages and have the whole school play ground to our exclusive use! One day we
also discovered a pine cone garden. We spent the entire day collecting pines
through the stacks of dry leaves. Ahhh…those were the days man! Those were the
days.
“Summer afternoon- summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful
words in the English language.”