jab main chhoti bacchi thi!

ITW did this tag about 'what are the 7 favourite things you enjoyed doing as a child?' I am picking it up because nostalgia is almost always nice! :)

I loved the walk to / from the school! (I liked school too, but the walk more!).

We were a gang of like 8 -10 kids (gender didn't matter at all then!) who went to the same school at the same time. So we would meet up every morning and walk to the school. There were times if we were 8 of us, we would take a cab simply because minimum fare was 8bucks and bus fare of Re.1. So if we pooled in we could go by cab!! Imagine cramming 8 people in ONE cab!! :D Then, there was a huge tree on the footpath outside our school.

We used to wait there in the evening for everyone to come and the leisurely walk back home would start. There would be again occasional pooling of money to buy 'golis' from the sweet shop. There was one type - really small red coloured pellet looking ones, which cost just 5ps per goli! And the yummy kala khatta flavoured one that cost a whole 25ps! My mouth waters thinking about it even now! Thankfully questionable hygiene and ingredients were, well, not questioned so much then! :p There was another bhaiyya outside school how sold imli (tamarind), kairi (raw mango), bora (I have no idea about the translation) which was sold with mix of salt and chilli powder! Drooooool!

Summer Vacations at Kolhapur

Those were the days when vacation meant at least a month going to Kolhapur and surrounding cities where all my maternal cousins stayed! My mausi's daughter S is just 15 days elder to me, so meeting her was what I looked forward to the most! That is when I did yearly learning and forgetting of cycling. Going to circuit house opposite their apartment and trying to get 'english' imli off the trees with stones and crazy jumping! Talking late into the night, playing cards and name,place, animal, thing throughout the day to calling a cousin over just to tell us ghost stories really late! :)

Birthday Parties

How I Loved getting invited for friends' birthday parties. Of course they used to be simple affairs. Cake (Monginis was height of expensive cakes), wafers and Rasna! It would just be another floor and yet you wore your best clothes, matching clips and went with a little gift wrapped in shiny paper and had lotsa fun doing nothing super special!

Playing with friends

Be it playing house-house with the whole kitchen set and fake food (never would my Mom have thought i would NEVER want to cook) or pretending to be major career women walking on high heel making tic-toc noise (i have never understood why heels always considering i never wore them in real life when i had a job) to playing chain, catch and even dreaded langdi! Every evening as soon as you got home, you threw everything, had a glass of milk and ran to the gacchi (terrace) and played till your parents didn't holler!

Festivals

Be it holi or diwali, I loved being a part of the festivities! To get an oil bath early in the morning on diwali day to playing colours till you became unrecognisable during holi! There used to be Kojagiri (a particular full moon night) celebrated in the building. Thats the day they had the building committee meeting that was followed by snacks and coffee! Kids used to play in one corner of the terrace and rest of it was meeting. Soon we were too many to let sane adult conversation happen! So kids started having a separate Kojagiri party by contributing money. Yummy food and crazy games till late into the night. Those were indeed the days! I still love it all!

Shopping

Unlike now, shopping wasn't a can be done anytime kinda affair. One got new clothes only for birthday and Diwali. To go and shop for it was a HUGE thing! My parents let me choose my clothes from pretty early on. Now when I look back I cringe at my choice and wonder what must be going through my parents' mind when they threw their hard earned money to buy crappy clothes! Sorry mom and dad!

Sundays and television

Sunday meant watching cartoons and Rangoli! Mickey Mouse and Donald duck were preceded by best of bollywood gaanas. To accompany the gaanas we would get tea! Sunday was the only day bro and me got tea, which on other days was a glassful of bournvita! :) Sundays also meant buying khaari from the bhaiyya who went door to door and dunking it in chai and taking the soggy bit to your mouth without dropping it in the chai or somewhere midway! haven't you heard there is a many a slip between the cup and the lip?! :p

This was super fun to do!! Man! How life has changed?! I remember my mom telling us how much MORE fun their childhood was without TV and computer and no other forms of distraction really. Will i also be going "Hamare zamanein mein" with Kabir while he rolls his eyes in exasperation?!

Well, we can just wait and watch, can't we?!

I don't know if we can tag people when we have picked up the tag just like that. But then what the heck! It will be fun to read some other people's take on this!

I tag my namesake Mamma-Mia, Just Like That (she hasn't posted in AGES!), WIAN, Munchkin's mommy and Dee.

If you have done it already forget it! If you haven't and get time, do it!

It's a refreshing walk down the memory lane!