Tuesday, April 3, 2007

The Summer Tag!!



When temperatures roared to a scale of 86F, n just as we started mentioning the summer,lo! I get tagged by Priya..I am to write the 8 things i enjoy doing in summer..

Let me start with the summers when I was at school and like any kid, the Summer holidays were much rejoiced!!
In whichever part of the country we were, during summer, we wud be back to our home state kerala entitled "God's own country". It was fun to be at my grandparents place..I am the first born to my mom, she to her dad n he to his parents.. so in this case, i was the only one in my generation for quite a while there.. N that did the wonder.. I cud bask in the warmth of the love n care of my grandparents,my mom's 4 siblings, her uncles, aunts n cousins who were in school or college at the time. They called me "diya kutti"(diya baby :)) and thus pampered me a lot..I know i still hold that special place in their hearts.N later as the family extended, the fun was in the merriness n togetherness..
So my first best thing is goin to native place and being with all cousins and relatives..

My second best thing is also associated with my native place..my granny along with her favourite maid who was also to be addressed as granny by us, and her 2 daughters prepared a horde of sumptuous savouries, desserts n pickles.. Each day was a feast.. My favourites among them were the chips made of jack fruit, plantain, jack fruit halwa(A sweet dish), puzhukku (A south indian dish) ,the tapioca curry, the tender coconuts specially kept aside for me.. ah i cant stand to describe any more..
Also equally joyful was when we went hunting.. Not for any animal but for fruits.. It was real fun to struggle hard to pluck jamuns, peaches,sapota, mangoes etcfrom the tall trees..Whole day long we played in the yard n in the night began the "äntakshari" sessions including all the family members..It was especially fun when there was a power cut for there wudnt be the TV to distract anyone..We also enjoyed putting mehandi on each others palms plucking leaves from the mehandi tree and grinding it into a paste mixed with tea leaves n lemon juice..
And as our school vacation was a little out of sync with the state school where my granny was music teacher, i used to accompany her at times to her school.. Also some days accompany my grandpa to his grocery shop..n each place i was given a red carpet welcome ;-)

The third favourite thing is going for trips to hill stations like ooty, kodai, Gangtok, Kathmandu.. Once in 2-3 years we went for these trips and it was best enjoyed in summer when we cud eat lots of ice creams n drink copious amount of fruit juice..

But as all good things come to an end, soon we grew up n got engrossed in all the monotonous worldly affairs of attaining a degree /career and all the serious things..But even in college i did have my share of fun..
4. water theme parks.. every visit has made my day memorable n though I'm a little scared of water (no sarcasm pls :P) it has been real fun..
5. the holi festival which comes in the outset of summer.. A delightful festival full of colours and water, it is worth waiting for the summer...
6.Ice creams... I can spend an entire day in an ice cream parlour.. N chilling out summer with ice creams is my kinda treat :)
7. the beach.. actually it can be point no 1 too. for i simply love being at the beach...N summer or winter its always an affirmative for a beach trip from me.. However it becomes all the more exciting in summers as it is more active and lively..The best way to beat the heat..just be in the water lol..
8.Sleep during day n party at night.. when i was at Chennai where its almost always summer, every weekend thats how it used to be.. We wud laze in bed or in front of TV hogging till 4-5 pm after which our day wud begin ;-) Gosh i miss those days...
Hope to do many more thrilling activities this summer, my first one here in US.. will keep u posted..(hope my flashback stories didn't bore u..)

29 comments:

Keshi said...

Nice Summery post...cool!

**the tapioca curry

Absolutely LOVE it!

Keshi.

Amandeep Singh said...

Man...those days must have been fun!
;)

Unknown said...

ah..kerala..beautiful place..had enjoys the backwaters..didn't enjoy that houseboat...too many mosquitoes at night..lol
beach? in the summer? crazy gal. hopefully you are talking about going to the beach during sunsets...

did I tell you the secret mango diet or did I forget?

diyadear said...

thanks keshi..
standbymind, u said it.. those days were the best!!!

Cris said...

hahah, I read your post and was checking on the links, then you commented on my blog! I have a friend in Chennai!!!! Never met her, we used to work together, we still instant message each other sometimes.

Amandeep Singh said...

Btw...May i ask y jerry mcguire one of ur ur fav movie?

Amandeep Singh said...

Hey May I ask ya..U is jerry mcguire one of yer fav movie?

Annie said...

The stories didn't bore me at all. In fact, they reminded me of the wonderful times I had with my grandmother and aunts and cousins when I was a young girl on summer holidays with them.

I hope you enjoy summer in Florida. Are you near a beach?

Priya said...

Diya:

I was little away and sorry to reply late. Thanks for taking the tag girl.

chips made of jack fruit, plantain, jack fruit halwa- You deprived me again after those mangoes..

Playing antakshari is always fun isn't it. Cool.
I loved the icecream and beach ones as they are my favorite ones too.

Looks like you had awesome summers back those days.

diyadear said...

hershal, im a little crazy.. u came to know that only now :O ??n n ope u didnt tell me abt the diet...
cris, oh go down to chennai.. gr8 place to shop esp clothes ;)
standbymind, i ve seen the movie just once when i was in 11th n at the time it gave me a bad hang over.. i was a die hard jerry maguire fan ;) n many such little things makes it a fav.. nice that u asked.. guess i'll watch it once more n c how it feels now..
annie school days r the best always.. aren't they.. n hey im not at florida dear.. i'm at houston but sadly not near the beach :(
priya, no probs hon.. i just loved writing that tag.. tahnks to u for asking me to do it...

Radha said...

Didnt know u're from kerala!

sweta prabhu said...

truely.. good old days they were.. wonder if we'll all get back together like that!! ever!! my favorite from ur 8,our native place and oue vacation in those hill stations.

Lotus Reads said...

We had snow this morning so it was so wonderful to read a nice warm summer's post from you, diya kutti! :)

I loved reading your childhood reminisces in Kerala...we visited there recently and stayed at the Taj Malabar...the backwaters are so inpsiring and beautiful! And the food,ohhh, the food is to die for, especially all that glorious seafood, you must just miss all of that, don't you?

And yes, I miss Holi too! I grew up in Bombay where Holi is a rambunctious event...but it is so much fun. I feel so sad my kids don't get to experience it on a regular basis.

Great post, diya!

MeMyself_n_I said...

wish delhi had a beach or something. :-(

very nice tag. am looking forward to summer already(something which i generally don't do).

Little Miss Muffet said...

wow..it's 86 F already huh? it's still around 65 F most days in CA...summer for me means sphagetti straps and capris :)

Bobkat said...

Those things sound lovely and summery. Thanks for sharing them :-)

diyadear said...

radha, now u know:)
sweta, i god knows now when we can all be together again.. may be some day with our kids';)
lotus,snow.. wow.. i wish i were there.. yeah i miss the kerala cuisine..glad u liked it.. thank u:)
hey teen, ya ve heard abt the summer in delhi..wat a pity ive never visited the capital of my country.. hey do take the tag n write a post...

diyadear said...

muffet, oooo.. ya looking fwd to such a summer here he he..
B-K, my pleasure..:)

MeMyself_n_I said...

yes, will do, but only after the exams!!!

Unknown said...

ah..I knew I forgot(contradictory statement here)

anyways..the 6 or 7 course mango diet.
here goes.Say it in a sing song voice.
1 mango in the morning..
2 for lunch.
1 for inbetween
2 for dinner
and if you are really hungry
1 for midnight snack

do this for 3-4 days a week for 3-4 weeks and you will lose weight baccha.
mind you, not to eat anything else or drink anything except water on those mango days... and on non mango days, if you pig out, then everything goes to waste...4 days of mango will make you lose weight..and vitamin level will drop, best to eat green foods on non mango does to increase the vit. level..
now go baccha..go and enjoy, for tis the season to not be chubby
falala la la and all that jazz.

diyadear said...

hey teen,
did wonder y i wasnt seeing any new posts on ur blog.. got the answer now.. all the best for the exams!!
harsh, cool diet.. will try to follow it ;)

The Avenger !!! said...

and now i realised how similar we are. btw do me a fav and stop copying me :) you even were born under my astro sign sigh!!!!

hehehe (just kidding)

Maddy said...

appidiya? kanji & puzhuku...that brought great tastes to my mind...
we are yet to climb higher than 80 here in Cal. but it will soon and i am told it will be 110-115 on a regular basis for us. thats summer in socal.

Maddy said...

appidiya? kanji & puzhuku...that brought great tastes to my mind...
we are yet to climb higher than 80 here in Cal. but it will soon and i am told it will be 110-115 on a regular basis for us. thats summer in socal.

diyadear said...

Avenger,
:O lol.. have a gr8 weekend..
Maddy thanks for dropping in even after a long gap..Today devendran is smiling on us today...;)

Preeti Shenoy said...

Do you rememeber,once during summer vacation,in your gradmom's place, they wanted me to name a newborn calf.The usual names there used to be "lakshmi" or "gomathi" or some such thing for calves.I insisted that since I was given th honour of naming, the calf should be called "goofy".All the hired help there were so amused with then name!Still makes me laugh when i think of it!!

diyadear said...

ps, oh is it.. thanks for telling me.. will ask mom.. pity, i dont remember the incident..

Anonymous said...

Hi, very interesting post, greetings from Greece!

Anonymous said...

Hey - I am really glad to discover this. great job!

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