Saturday, October 13, 2012

'87 vacations

Back to '87 again, this time few months before 25 years ago. We had a long break after PUC II exams until the next stage of education which would either be BSc. or BE. Results would be out some time June or July. Oh, CET was looming around but I wasn't really worried, not that was prepared well, actually I din't care. I was totally free from books and classes - that's what mattered.

Back then climate was quite different; rains would be on time. When the skies opened up it kept pouring for hours. I always enjoyed rains, not just watch but getting drenched was my sense of fun. Dad had told rain water is the purest form of water. However, rain water is at its best after the first 30 minutes because airborne dust would have cleared.

'87 I was a part of a gang of youngsters crazy about wheels; BMX, bikes, gocarts and stuff like that. The group consisted of Deepak's friends; Vijay, Suresh, Lodde and few more guys. We experimented a bit, join two bikes to make a inline three wheel contraption. The 3-wheeler could be ridden by two, but it was tricky, especially at turns for the rider in the rear. Few of us rode it expertly; double pedal-power and double-stopping power too. Big achievement! Once we went for a movie, we had a long argument with the parking lot attendant he wanted 2 bikes' fee for the three-wheeler, we argued just for the heck of it :) We had a two BMXs in our gang. We would watch BMX movies and tried imitated the stunts but none of us could do a decent wheelie. We would ride on the spectators' step-platform and jump down steps as we rode. Someone came up with robbers and cop game; we chased around and did movie style crashes. One of the days few boys were playing cricket, their bicycles park close by. Our robber-cop game got a bit wild, someone crashed into the bicycles and the rest of the gang ran over the fallen bicycles! We managed to get away from the yelling cricketers. We needed constant changes, a new game was discovered: bike football. Rules allowed tackling the ball either with the front wheels or feet. It was rough game and we did play it. It was an afternoon in August, bike football in progress and the skies opened up, it poured like crazy. The football field was holding water fast and the ball started floating, that was wonderful for us because the ball rolled much slower. Splashing water became a part of the game. The game went on  ...falls wouldn't hurt. It was one of the best games I ever played. I guess the game stopped because we were hungry. Still pouring hard, we rode home, it was as good as taking a bath while on the move. Hunger drove us and rain gave us the energy. This reminds me of a punch line seen recently- alive is awesome. My jeans and tee were washed and clean. Amma gave us a tongue lashing while Appaji was cool about our antics, as usual. I  dried, changed and spun dry my wet clothes in the twin-tub.Can't remember what mom served us for lunch.

I don't remember playing bike football again. Also I spent less and less time with the gang. Time to get back to academics. Mom decided I would be joining engineering though I wasn't for it. Anyway, I got a seat in BSMCE, course would commence October 5th.

25 year later... I miss those rains and those games. Well, life goes on and scenes keep changing...

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3 comments:

Manjula Umesh said...

Lively post, enjoyed reading it. So alive.. :)

siddeshwar said...

:)

Arshiya Naaz said...

Sir, it was very nice reading your blogpost