December takes me down the memory lane to those days when everything was perfectly fine with life, in fact , the word "life" was very big to understand then. All that I knew in those days was my home, school and grandparents' home. Those were the days when life was so simple, without having to do much except doing my lessons well, playing and obeying elders.
Back then, by this time of the year, I used to finish my half-yearly examination and get set for vacationing in my maternal grandparents' house. It was a usual practice then, to spend my holidays in the house of my grandparents. On the day of my last exam itself, my grandfather/grandmother or both used to come to my home, so that they can take me at the earliest. Sometimes it also happened that I would go with my mother.
I had to travel from my home town Vijayawada to Guntur which would take about one hour to reach by bus and hardly forty-five minutes if your travelling by car. In the initial days of my childhood I used to travel very often by bus. Later, I hardly remember any trips in bus, because I always went by car, most often in my uncle's car.
Whatever the mode of transport was, I never sat free in that very little time of journey. I had a big work then, that was counting the stars. Oh! please don't misunderstand as real stars, for, in the first place, counting the stars itself is unfeasible, and that too from a moving vehicle is something unimaginable. So I haven't counted the real stars, but those stars that december brings every year, the Christmas stars that are hanged in front of every shop and many homes.
During my journey, I used to make a note of every single star that my eyes could see. I might have turned my head in all the directions so that I won't leave any star uncounted. I used to feel so bad if I went wrong in my counting or if I felt that I left some of them. Unable to see my plight, the members of my family, whoever was travelling with me had taken the responsibility of counting and when we reached our destination, they would give me their count. Sometimes if I didn't go on a vacation, then anyone from my family who was coming that way used to give me the news of stars and make me smile. What started off as a child's game had become a habit over the years and now it lives in our minds as one of the sweetest memories. It sounds interesting to a child's mind, silly to an adult's mind, but the most precious to my mind.
© Written by Manaswini Pasumarthi
Back then, by this time of the year, I used to finish my half-yearly examination and get set for vacationing in my maternal grandparents' house. It was a usual practice then, to spend my holidays in the house of my grandparents. On the day of my last exam itself, my grandfather/grandmother or both used to come to my home, so that they can take me at the earliest. Sometimes it also happened that I would go with my mother.
I had to travel from my home town Vijayawada to Guntur which would take about one hour to reach by bus and hardly forty-five minutes if your travelling by car. In the initial days of my childhood I used to travel very often by bus. Later, I hardly remember any trips in bus, because I always went by car, most often in my uncle's car.
Whatever the mode of transport was, I never sat free in that very little time of journey. I had a big work then, that was counting the stars. Oh! please don't misunderstand as real stars, for, in the first place, counting the stars itself is unfeasible, and that too from a moving vehicle is something unimaginable. So I haven't counted the real stars, but those stars that december brings every year, the Christmas stars that are hanged in front of every shop and many homes.
During my journey, I used to make a note of every single star that my eyes could see. I might have turned my head in all the directions so that I won't leave any star uncounted. I used to feel so bad if I went wrong in my counting or if I felt that I left some of them. Unable to see my plight, the members of my family, whoever was travelling with me had taken the responsibility of counting and when we reached our destination, they would give me their count. Sometimes if I didn't go on a vacation, then anyone from my family who was coming that way used to give me the news of stars and make me smile. What started off as a child's game had become a habit over the years and now it lives in our minds as one of the sweetest memories. It sounds interesting to a child's mind, silly to an adult's mind, but the most precious to my mind.
© Written by Manaswini Pasumarthi
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