Winter vacation... Getting up in 4°C on a foggy morning, at 8 am n switching on Tom n Jerry. Watching your breath mist before your eyes, n rolling a paper into a make believe cigar. Heater on at full blast as we rolled up inside the quilt, expecting a gift from Santa! And the sheer HAPPINESS when it turned out to be the coin shaped chocolate you were craving for! Or getting the news that school has been cancelled for another week as the government shut it down due to the sheer impossibility of being able to drive in the bone freezing chill! Or wearing Santa hats, playing cricket in the moderately warm afternoons in the winter sun. No cellphones. No computer. Just a bat n ball and 3 friends who would come over. These, my friend, are my memories of Winter in Lucknow. We went to bed and pretended to sleep for the sake of our parents, all the while plotting staying up and catching Santa sneak in n deliver our gift. I have watched my 5 year old sister operate laptops n androids n playing Temple Run like a pro. We did not have such gadgets. But what we did have, was a childhood that no amount of money can buy. Something Priceless...
A Winter's Memories