Monday, May 5, 2008

Childhood Memories in School Picnics

Vasona Lake Park, California ...
Sunday, approximately 2.30 PM ...

The game was on ... I found myself revolving around a small circle (made out of shoes) trying to grab a handkerchief placed as if imitating a pyramidal shape and simultaneously trying to save the same from my opponent's hand too ... The idea is to score a point, either by snatching the handkerchief and running into your own territory or trying to get the opponent out if he snatches it and tries to run .... sounds familiar ???

Click "READ MORE" to read the entire post ...

Of-course this sounds really simple and less tiring than the game where one catcher builds his own chain of people by getting as many people out and then runs as a team to get other free players out... As soon as the catcher gets one player out, that player gets linked as a chain to the catcher and they go hand-in-hand to make others out and join them to their chain ... Phew !! Sounds tiring especially when the chain gets about 10-12 people long and players at both the ends try to run in opposite directions as soon as they find a "bakra" (free player) ... Thats where the fun begins for the players in the middle as the gravitational force tries to play games with their hormonal bodies, trying to pull and stretch every inch of that fatness developed in opposite directions with some even managing to break the chain and tumble or get literally dragged towards one end .... LOL !!!! - The game is called "Human Chain" ....

Well, guess what, I and a lot of my friends just experienced and felt nostalgic about this games, remembering how we used to play these when we used to go out on a picnic during our school days ...

Reminiscing those school days and especially those picnics ....

Turn back in Time to Year 1990s - 95' 96' etc ... School Days !!!

No matter how bad or good the school is, no matter how much we love or hate the teachers there, no matter if you are a bright student or a dull bully of your class.... everyone would always wait for this particular one day where we can just stay away from school and get out on the field and run and play as much as we can and that too with all our school buddies.... Just as the day for the picnic would be announced, one would get busy preparing for "the" day !!!

The preparations would range a whole different set of ideas ... Boys either preparing how to take revenge upon the teachers, by harassing them to the fullest, girls preparing how to look good and how to impress the boys, boys in turn looking to fight the class monitor if he has been trying to give all a hard time, further, some so called infatuated couples even try to plan out some private 5-10 minutes chat on the picnic day, away from the eyes of everyone as this would be the best day where they don't have to worry about someone prowling to catch them, and this in turn would lead to some new ideas and courageous approaches to woo and impress one another .... At the end everyone wants to go out and have fun and make it a day worth remembering as years go by ...

And finally when one finds that its picnic day tomorrow, that very night he/she is not able to sleep due to excitement, no matter where the school authorities are taking them, they just are itching to be out there and have a gala time...

Now speaking about picnics and the place where I am from (Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India)....I personally used to hate this picnics, for a number of reasons ...

Firstly, the teachers and everyone at the school would select the same place over and over again to go for a one-day picnic, either it would be Ajwa in Baroda (Vadodara, Gujarat, India), Maudhi, Sapteshwar, SaritaUdhyan, Akshardham etc ...
Year after Year, no matter which grade are you in, you would end up going out to either of these places ONLY no matter what !!!

Secondly, they used to call us at 5.30-6.30 in the morning, sometimes in winters when its freezing outside, and then make us wait till 8.30-9.30 before loading the bus and making a move, due to which they would cut short the picnic time and in a way also cut short on the various places where we can go ...

And at the end of the day all you have in your stomach would be "Bhel", "Ugly Sandwiches", "Rasna"...
Some of us would carry home cooked delicacies, but as usual the person who carries food from home never gets a handful, its his friends who feast upon that, and of-course thats childhood friendship for them ....
Well if luckily some schools are generous enough then you do get "BatakaPauva", "Puri-Shak", "Matho" etc ... but not all of us are always that lucky, atleast I wasnt ....

But having said this, I still used to love those one-day picnics, as it gave me a lot of time to stay with my buddies, explore all kinds of mischiefs, sports, talk to as many girls I want without any restrictions from my teachers, play as many pranks as I want without the fear of getting a bad comment in my diary's last page, bring as many gadgets I want and impress others, and do as much bossism I want with the weaklings of my class !!!!
Of-course while playing I would deliberately hit my enemy in class, accidentally I would bump into people I hated the most, and cautiously used to create situations where upon I have an opportunity to talk to the girls on whom I had my childhood crushes ...lol !!! I used to get lost somewhere and thus get teachers running around trying to find me and my friends as in those days there was no other means of communication except mouth and foot !!! so shouting and running around !!! (I used to end up with a lot of complaints in my diary but those were not official as it was "PICNIC DAY" ) ....
But still, Yup, all this in one day ? WHO WOULD WANNA MISS IT !!!!

Well, while playing the same kind of games at a picnic we had just yesterday, I lived those moments from the school picnics once again, and enjoyed every bit of it ... At the end of the day the entire body aches, but it turns out to be worth enough to have that pain... And of-course the best part in yesterday's picnic was that we still had the "BHEL", "SANDWICHES" and "LOLLIPOPS".... But this time the Bhel was nicely crafted to represent the Mexican cuisine, and the Sandwiches were a great deal better as they were home made, and we got ourselves a treat of Kaju Katri and Bundi Ladoo too ....

To sum up, the childhood picnic memories, after each picnic, every year, either you end up making a lot of new enemies or you end up screwing your chances at wooing a girl to like you or vice versa, you have a lot of new friends and/or you end up starting your love story based on infatuation which might or might not succeed, and of-course if you are mischievous enough - then you become "ankho ka tara" (to be like a diamond in one's eyes) for your teachers to keep an eye on you ... lol.... and also for the girls to keep an eye on you which of-course none of us boys would mind.... and thus you rise to a new STARDOM !!!!

But all this sums of to one simple word - FUN and INNOCENCE !!!

Cheers

Samkit !!!

(With helpful inputs and ideas for the places and food during school days from : Ruchi, Jaishal, Bhoomi, Karan(Keko), Jimmy, Aarohi, Vivek P...)



6 comments:

Soham Shah said...

Nice nostalgic post dude!!!

But the words FUN and INNOCENCE dont suit you, do they?? ..
Innocence and that from you, ask Jaishal!!!..Ha ha ha !!

But a nice post..Keep up the good work !!

Ankit Desai said...

Good post Samkit... Godspeed...

Unknown said...

Dude....nice post, it reminded me of all picnics from 1-12th...but u shud also add the long school trip experiences!!!

Samy said...

@ Soham - Thanx man ! Lol ! I m innocent as I always used to say ... Hu shankar Bhagwan Jevo bholo Chu .... Bt you spoilt me in those 3 years i spent with you man !!! Lol !!

@ Ankit - Thnx man !

@ Ruchi - Well long school trips never happened for me atleast LOL !!! We were not the typical "santa's students" LOL !!! ...

Unknown said...

Dear ,
I think ,school days are always golden days almost for everyone.Be happy with all good moments of your school life.Do u remenber that you had played role of old dadaji in your school days with dialogue for daugher in law "vahu beta, cha aapsho?" and won the prize for the same?If possible, I shall send you that picture of your childhood.expressing all moments of life.
good, keep it up

Samy said...

@ Dad : Thanks for the appreciation ... Yes I still remember that day when I acted that role ... hahahaha tht ws really funny !!!