#வெய்யிலோடு_விளையாடி

            I know my Bikaner post yesterday wasn’t noticed by many.

            Even so let me try again without losing heart

          So the summer of 1966 saw us alternating between strict coaching classes and happy indoor and outdoor  games  during the week and still happier zoo visits every Sunday. 

           Come Summer of 1967 , we are on a very long journey with more train changes than you can count on your one hand.  In fact from the desert  Bikaner to the hill resort Shillong . 

             Beautiful beautiful Shillong , pleasant and green . No electricity in the colony where we are relocated. 

              We have written our annual exams at Bikaner and started our journey. So we are expecting a long summer holiday. 

             No such luck again. The academic year in the hills is structured so , that it is the winter that has the longest holidays and summer is just 2 weeks long.

        Down on our luck . We start for school at once. Happy change from the Hindi of Bikaner to English .

         Again no friends nearby. We are living in an East Bengal refugee colony to be near the BSF barracks.

           No don’t feel sad for us. The pristine beauty of the place is gift enough. There is a gurgling brook behind our house with a small water fall.

            The whole city is a tourist attraction.   Add to that Appa’s penchant for taking us on outings every Sunday.

               Right after breakfast we would start on an impromptu picnic with just a ground sheet , card game , transistor and the necessities for making tea. 

                We would get down just outside the city , go for long walks .  Pick some wild flowers and ferns. Some pine cones and dried algae  all for decoration. Exclaim at the pitcher plants , orchids on trees . Reach some brook . Sit down . Make and have tea . Card games. Then return home for lunch. Yes our Amma would be with us. It was the cook making the lunch. 

                 Privileged life. 

                   We had already paid our debts when we  had lived alone in Chennai ,  with Appa in the Chinese border. So let us enjoy ourselves.