It’s interesting that me,my mother,my grandmother, my grandmother’s grandmother ,all have been brought up in the same town called Bhadrachalam. I thought,let’s see how things would have changed over time in the same place and I asked my mother and grandmother to share their summer memories.
My ammamma : Ratnakaramma , at a young age of 83 now ,takes us to a summer 70 years back.
“We used to have loads of time in our childhood and still never once got bored, unlike you who whine bore even for a half-hour free time.There were variety of games which we played (in telugu: golilu, vamana guntalu,pachis etc).
We played, what you call it today?, yes, treasure hunt also. Treasure was a broken slate piece on which we used to make our mark and hide it ,sometimes even on the house roof under the flat bricks. We used to read lot of books -novels of Saratchandra chattopadyaya , Vishwanath etc.
Those days, many things that were used in home were also made at home. Kumkuma & turmeric powders, kajal etc. were made by us. We used to make paper cups by mixing wet paper and fenugreek seeds and the paste was applied inside the linings of a steel cup. After it is dried, we used them for holding dry items in the kitchen. It was an art those days!
Wah, I thought I forgot about all these things,Ramya. But when you started asking, it’s a relief that I still can recollect those memories.
Every craft we had at home was hand-made by us. We used to weave thread to make colourful covers for those big round baskets we had, we used to knit pictures of parrots,flowers,monkeys on a cloth and frame them. We used to go crazy and even make 3-D figures of animals.
We used to roam around in farms,pluck fruits and eat them under the trees together. The most enjoyable thing for me was gardening. I loved to plant new seeds according to the seasons and take care of them everyday. In our garden, we had jasmines, hibiscus, chrysanthamums, firecracker flowers. There were vegetables too- I had grown tomatoes, chillis,snake gourds(a whopping 60), brinjals etc. I used to experiment with natural manure to be used and all. It brought great fun to me.”
Amma: Usha, my mother,teacher and a power package of love and patience 🙂
“Summer time brings to mind the evenings I spent with my father. He was a loving person.He used to take us ( we were 7 of us) to the banks of Godavari almost every evening. I remember dearly how he played with us running all over the sand and the cool dip we had in Godavari before going home.
We had lots of books at home. I used to re-read them sometimes when there were no new books to read. A small radio was the only connection then,to the outer world. We used to listen to songs,news etc. More significantly, every person was connected to each other. They had their own groups like the group of intellectual discussions,my mother was a part of mathrumandali(mother’s association), bhajans group etc. As kids, we used to roam around and get a glimpse of those wondrous activities and associations. In the nights, everyone slept outside on the streets,roads were wetted with water and you could see rows of cots on the roads. The security problems were way lesser at that time. It was more peaceful,more harmonious and more sense of togetherness then.”
To read my summer memories, visit : https://cloudsofthedusk.wordpress.com/2017/05/29/dear-summer-days/
This is the fifth post in the series : Summer Impressions.
Clouds of the Dusk 