Saturday, March 17, 2007

Summertimes


All pictures courtesy: Corbis

Summer is here...! I have always hated summers but summers as a kid are full of joyful memories...of Final Exams,half day school and coming home early, playing all afternoon and generally enjoying life as another academic year came to a close. Till school closed we stayed in Bangalore and after that it was Kerala till school opened.

The summers I spent in Bangalore remind me of so many things:




Water melons: These would arrive in the Bangalore markets by January. We would buy them only when the weather heated up as eating water melon in the cold is no fun at all. We ate them plain…it was like biting into fragrant snow. My mom made watermelon juice too but nothing like eating watermelon as it is.

Grapes: Summers is the best time to eat grapes! I would keep grapes in the freezer of the fridge and after a time they became sweet cold grape ice!!! Amazingly simple to make fruit ice! I still do that! :)

Lassi: I think I might have broken some kinda record for drinking lassis. Somehow I was never fond of salty lassis. I preferred sweet lassis and I still do. In fact I survived more of liquid diet than solid diet during summer.


Splashing water with the garden hose: A favorite pastime. Most of my friends came home during weekend and holidays, as there is so much place to run around in my house, besides the village and farms close by. After running around and getting heated up, we would take the garden hose or the farm sprinklers and get ourselves thoroughly wet. It was the most fun activity and was usually done without getting caught. And the clothes dried just as easily in the heat.



Lemon Juice: I think my mom must have made gazillion litres of lemon juice during summers. I still love freshly squeezed lime juice and am waiting for the heat to hit us to drink a glass of lemon juice Kerala ishtyle.

Sugar Cane Juice: My mouth is watering already as I write this :p I think I pushed up sales graph of sugarcane juice wallahs a couple of miles higher on the chart. "Typhoid Juice", "Lizard Juice", etc were some terms my Dad used to keep us off sugar cane juice but that was an impossibility as these guys set up stalls every where, making it convenient to lop across the street and have a chilled glass far away from the watchful eyes of our parents. Regular news of kids who were hospitalized due to sugar cane juice and Ice Cream from roadside vendors which were read aloud had absolutely no effect on us.



Cucumber: Summers are synonymous with Cucumbers in Bangalore. And the Cucumber sellers had this wonderful masalas that made this enormously tasty veggie tastier. My favorite was a liquidy coriander chutney that the cart fellow would smear over the cucumber...yummmm.



Swing: Summers remind me of the swing at home. Somehow swinging in the cold Bangalore weather was no fun. But summers time ‘swinging’ was a treat!. As the swing rose higher and higher we felt like we were flying over the flowers and trees. It was an awesome feeling!

Summers and summer holidays were so much fun when we were in school and college. I am making this into a tag as I think we should relive from time to time the fun times we have had.

1. Write 8 things you enjoyed doing during summer/summer holidays.
2. Tag some people with the happy memories! (No need to post pictures!)

So I tag Alexis, Ganja Turtle, Neihal, Jiby, Jeseem, Fleiger, Mathew and Mind Curry to do The Sunshine Tag! :)

24 comments:

mathew said...

you made me feel it is summer already although it is freezing cold here...i loved all of em mentioned here except the water melons..somehow I was more fascinated with Pineapples...

I badly miss summer vacations..I ll merge this tag with the new entry am planning..

ah sugar cane juice is pure bliss..!!! :-)

Alexis said...

Wow...Great post and what a timing.

It is your ability of coming up with such exceptional posts at the right time, that I like very much.

While reading the post, I could feel the room becoming cooler :-)

Will do the tag. Have a great summer..

Mind Curry said...

ahhh...i had to go immediately and quench my thirst. what a vivid post! :)

thanks for tagging me! will do the needful before summer ends at least :)

Jiby said...

this is so wonderful...your description and the pictures took me back so many years...the water melons, lime juice, sambharam...feels like paradise lost.

thank you very much...you have spurred me to blog just when i reconciled myself to a few weeks groping in the darkness for another post.

someday i will also come up with a tag for you to take up!

ToOothlEss WOndeR! said...

What do I do when people inspire me?
I go make hay while the sun's still out and shining.
And look at my luck - i catch my favorite model having some water fun under the sun.
click

silverine said...

mathew:It's freezing cold out there? How I envy you! Loved your post. I never liked pineappls much, but mangoes...yumm I can live only on those.

Alexis: Thank you :) I am so looking forward to your epic tag!

MC:Hope we get to see your tag soon!

toothlesswonder: That was an awesome snap, the water splashing off the 'model' has been captured so well...and as usual I think he is a hunk ;)

jiby: Thoses were the days huh? Now I am eagerly awaiting to read all your tags :)

Amey said...

Grapes... and ganne ka ras... I can give you competition there :D

Will do the tag soon, but got 1/2 posts in the current series to finish first.

Did you forget mangoes? (Coz I can't believe somebody not liking them)

Jay Sun said...

Lovely post and excellent pics... :)

Dhanush | ധനുഷ് said...

That was one fantabulous post :-) Remembrance of lost times. I am sure I will take up this post, because summer is so dear to me even if it is sweating hot as there are lots of memories around me.

I still love freshly squeezed lime juice and am waiting for the heat to hit us to drink a glass of lemon juice Kerala ishtyle.

Will you be starting a Silverine's NarangaVellam Store Soon? Let me know the location. We had a store next to our school where we used to get "uppitta naaranga vellam" fro 25ps. Sweet Nannari Sarbath costed a bit high - Re 1/-.

Anonymous said...

My most favourite memory about summer when I was young - Bangldesh didn't have a cricket team :(

silverine said...

fleiger: Mango is my staple diet during summers :)

Jaysun: Thank you, why dont you do the tag? :)

Dhanush: LOL no I am not planning to start a lime juice stall but if you are, then I will help push your sales up. Do take up the tag, would love to read your take :)

G: ROTFLMAO

Neihal said...

bhonderful post.... I like summers...actually I like all season :)
But being from Western India...summers was a way of life there...how I miss those days....
will do the tag soon :)

@ g
Rotfl !!!

Amey said...

That's more like it... What's summer without mangoes?

BTW, grapes are more fun when they are "fed" by somebody... (not that I would know anything about it, but it seems fun) ;)

Dhanush | ധനുഷ് said...

Tag Done. A thread about summer was there in my mind to post. You just ignited it :)

Alex said...

You were a born drinker! ;)

Drinking juices keeps one real healthy.

Well, i missed lemon soda with salt in my childhood. I started having them when i was in madras only.

And yeah, i preferred slat lassi. I enjoyed eating than drinking though.

Spraying water was awesome fun. WE used to live in a campus and we used to take the big hose used for washing buses. :D

Anoop G said...

i always like rainy season... no summers for me!

silverine said...

fleiger: While searching for grapes pictures on the internet I came upon several images of people feeding each other grapes :p

neihal: I have heard of the summers of north :) And this dude G should be locked up or one day we will all split our sides open laughing :p Check out his blog especially 'Rigsaw', and you will be rofl!!

dhanush: Just read your wonderful memories :)

Alex: I admit I have a 'drinking' problem and it gets worse in summers :p Even now I can live on liquids like milk and juices etc.

Anoop: I love both :)

Amey said...

And still you didn't put that image? Think what it would have done to your readership...

Missed opportunities, I tell you.

Anonymous said...

Good post! And nice pictures!But all i can visualise are dried grapes, dried watermelons, dried cucumbers. Summer in Delhi doesnt permit one to think about refreshing imageries :-)

Anonymous said...

I have always hated summers but your post (specially the pictures) are making me think maybe, just maybe summer is not that bad after all :)

Anonymous said...

On second thoughts your post makes me think of my favourite season the winters (Though winters in mumbai are not what winters should be- absotutely chilling that is.) :(

Eating ice-cream on cold winters nights is the most fun.

Eating garama-garam spicy barbequed chicken straight from the barbeque.(We used to do that when we were in Nagpur)

Wearing huge,warm, soft quilts, and lovely soft socks and going to sleep.

Best part is dousing your skin with tons of moisturiser straight after you've had a nice long hot bath.

Mummmmmmmmmmmy I WANT WINTERS!!

silverine said...

fleiger: tch tch this blog is read by kids and senior citizens too, pliss remember :p

Jithesh: Thats sad! I have been to Delhi one summer...it was hotter than hell!!

kusum: I hate summers too, but these refreshing elements made it tolerable! And your description of winter is *sigh* soooo nice!!! I love winter, my fav weather! :)

Amey said...

Kids, I can understand... Why worry about senior citizens? They were young once too... (That sentence has words running all over the place, so please reconstruct before reading)

Forgot to mention last time, I like sweet lassi too... Mango lassi is even better ;)

Amey said...

Done dona done done... Check my blog...