Reflections

Aishwarya K.

Pune, India

Just today at our office, the conversation turned to — wouldn't it be wonderful if we got

summer holidays even now? Pack up quietly and head home, no worries about whether the PR got merged or whether the customer is happy.

Truly, those days were something else. The moment you submitted your last exam paper, a whole month and a half of summer holidays would begin! Carefree, joyful days. We'd hop onto an S.T. bus humming "Mamachya gavala jauya..." and head off to Aaji's place. All the cousins would gather together. Every day followed the same beautiful routine — playing all kinds of games, eating to your heart's content, sleeping deeply in the afternoon, and savoring all the special summer treats. And along with all of this, devouring books one after another. Not self-help books, mind you! Stories, novels! My Mamma says my love for reading came from my Aaji, who was just as passionate about it.

At Aaji's place, we'd stay right in the orchard. A huge mango tree stood at the very entrance. There was another one in the middle of the grape vineyard too. We cousins would sit outside and squeeze mangoes and slurp them up. To avoid getting rashes, we'd first let the initial sap drip into the soil as an offering. Sometimes, karwand — the little Kali Maina berries — would join the feast too. I actually love karwand more than jamun. There was one more special thing about afternoon meals — kanya! Made from ground maize, mixed into cool buttermilk and eaten with a slightly spicy amti on the side. Ahaha, after such a deeply satisfying meal, a good two-hour nap was only natural. After waking up, back to playing, with a Pepsi break in between. My taydi (maternal aunt) would stock up loads of Pepsis — one per person, every day. And this same taydi had another specialty — mattha! Fresh curd made from the buffalo's milk straight from the shed, churned into buttermilk, and then the final stage — mattha! Nobody makes it quite like her.

Once we came back from the village, the answer to "how to spend time at home" was:

reading! In the beginning, my Mamma bought me a big, expensive book of Aesop's Fables. I finished it in 2–3 days and immediately demanded the next one. So Mamma came up with a clever plan — she enrolled me in the "Khare Mandir Vachnalaya" (a local lending library). I walked in nervously and walked out with "Bokya Satbande – Part 1" by author Dilip Prabhavalkar. With a monthly membership, you could borrow only one book at a time. The very next day I was back at the library for Part 2. Even the librarian uncle was astonished — finished an entire book in a single day! And that's how I read through each part, one a day. There were seven parts in all, I think. So much fun! For those beautiful memories, and for being the starting point of my sweet reading journey, I will always be grateful to Dilip Prabhavalkar. And the love for reading that took root during that summer holiday stays with me to this day. There are pauses sometimes, but I always find my way back to books.

Such was the summer holiday — carefree, innocent, mischievous, and most importantly,

never to return — yet forever fresh in memory!

Mattha

Ingredients:

● Ginger

● Green chilli

● Garlic

● Buttermilk

● Cumin powder

● Sugar

● Salt

● Fresh coriander

Method:

● Grind the ginger, chilli, and garlic into a paste.

● Add a little of this paste and half a teaspoon of cumin powder to the buttermilk and

stir well.

● Then add sugar and salt — no fixed quantities, just go by instinct and taste.

● Once everything is well mixed, add finely chopped coriander and refrigerate.

● And then enjoy this wonderful, refreshing drink to the fullest!

This English translation has been written with the assistance of AI tools. To read the original article, please click here.