Cant wait for summer ........to be over!

 I am glad that we are in the middle of summer holidays - one month’s over and one more to go! Even before Abhay began his summer vacations, I had begun planning for them! I thought I had it perfectly planned out for Abhay to spend the first half at his grandparent’s farm in Dharmasthala the old fashioned way, followed by a refreshing family vacation to Kodaikanal which would ready him up for a football camp organized by his school. But when the school decided to cancel the sports camp for the month of May due to very few enrollments, we were faced with the horrifying prospect of Abhay spending the whole day at home, which would have him invariably turn to the idiot box for company. So we were forced to do some last minute leg work for summer camps in our area, the result being Abhay has been enrolled into a discovery and science based summer camp organized by a group known as the Readwell academy. Ideally, I would have wanted him to be engaged in some outdoor sports or physical activity, but given the circumstances, I can certainly make do with any activity that has him constructively engaged at least until noon,  as opposed to watching TV the whole day! Well, to be honest, with Bangalore’s scorching climate, diminishing open spaces (unless you live in an apartment), and unruly traffic even in residential localities, I wouldn’t blame him for wanting to stay indoors instead of exploring the outdoors!

Besides holidays, summer is also the time to head outside, relish the king of fruits and gulp down gallops of ice cream! So today I had him read “Lassi, Ice cream or Falooda” by Mala Kumar, Manisha Chaudary and Priya Kurien, a Level 2 Early Reader and a part of the Rituchakra series on seasons brought out by Pratham publications. As usual Meenu is excited about summer, a season between spring and monsoon, a season of school holidays, a season to take a vacation on the hills, like Ooty (“or Kodaikanal” as Abhay recalled), a season of grandma’s raw mango panna or Farhan aunty’s sweet smelling Falooda, a season of the hot sun that has everyone wearing dark shades and feeling thirsty while quenching the same with Nimbu Paani or ice creams. So is the little sapling that Meenu had planted during spring that has grown into a little plant which Meenu never forgets to water twice a day. Finally Meenu shares her eagerness with the plant which she feels is waiting for the monsoon to bear fruit the next summer. Well, its not only Meenu or her plant, I guess everyone is waiting for the monsoon too!