Summer Camps at Grandmother's home

     Modern Day Scene -  Long summer vacations today mean tripping over children and their play things at home. And they, of course come with unusual sounds and eerie silences( giving a premonition that all is not well).So whats the next best thing we do ? Scan the ads and papers for "summer camps", hobby classes...anything that will take them off your hands, and at the same time teach them valuable lessons in life.

   Flash back 30 to 40 years - Vacation time!! We have been waiting for this for months now! All my cousins will be there, has called all of us. My favourite mama  has already come to pick me up. The best part of the deal is - No Parents!! Yippee!!Finally we all land at Aita's place and there are so many things to share! We wake up to hot tea(a strict no-no with my Mother). We are allowed to make our own chapati on earthen stoves.All the chapatis turn into maps of various countries and hence we reinforce our geography lessons. And then we go into the fields just for the heck of it. There are so many trees to be climbed and so many fruits to be plucked. And the science lessons seep into us( not that we think of them there...are you crazy!). The impromptu picnics in the middle of the huge vegetable patches.We love to help Aita and Mamis with spinning thread and weaving. Every darn thing is home-made...
  
                  Evening times are spent playing "hide and seek", "house- house",making dolls out of old clothes and all the games of childhood. Under the starlit night we listen to Koka's stories of their heydays amid the distractions of catching fireflies!When a cousin reminds us that catching fireflies makes you wet the bed, we immediately stop.Sometimes we enact plays, complete with home made costumes and screens and props! How we rehearse! They eventually end up in squabbles and fights...but we make up too after the sulks. And the D day for the show has enthusiastic grandparents and uncles and aunts, clapping away and laughing at the silliest of jokes!!!! Then the Party Pooper...holidays have come to an end. Hey! Where did the days go?Never mind, there's always a next time.




  Back To Modern Day - I am sure my mother also must have said "Yippee!" when she packed us off. On the hindsight, that was a true Summer camp with loads of bonding, team spirit, life enhancing skills, EQ, IQ,organic lifestyle... all thrown in together but enveloped in unconditional love of grandparents, uncles and aunts...