The Eternal Optimist!

Monsoon heralds the beginning of the new academic year and brings joy to all. To me, it announces the end of the party season. My uncles used to drop me back home with a bag full of fresh cucumbers and lots of good wishes for school. I hated monsoon for that. It brought me back from the cave of Alibaba that was my grandmother’s house. It brought me back to this cruel world of studies from the magic kingdom of stories. Above all, the uncles, my two Jinns would vanish behind a curtain of rain- not from the sky but from my eyes. My cousins Sushrut Ria and I called grandmother’s home “Magic Kingdom”. As dark clouds vanished and winter approached, the magic would spread its wings. Like intelligence agents, the uncles knew before we did, the dates of our mid term break. Afraid that my mom will deny permission to go to the magic Kingdom, I would plan my escape a week before the Diwali brake. Bal mama’s shop of electrical appliances was on the way to my school. He used to wait outsid...

Summer has come yet again and as always has brought with it, the memories of my childhood. I remember the summer vacations I spent with my cousin Sushrut and grandmother at her place in the village. Those were the best days of my life. Grandmother had a garden complete with mango and cashew trees and our servant Vassant would pick lots of cashew apples for us. There was a huge porch where we would play wrestling, cricket and football. We quarreled a lot over who gets to play with the pet dog. Grandmother would then take us to work with her in the garden. When she asked us which plants we would like to plant, I planted cotton for that would give her cotton for her ‘lugdem’ and Sushrut chose chilly for grandmother grew her cooking chilly in her backyard. She loved trees and she loved children. She never lost her temper with children Our morning would begin with sound grandmother’s prayers; a breakfast of kanji and a drink of the traditional Goan Ambil after this, we wrestled and raced i...