A Travel to the Lap of nature

Frankly speaking, sometimes I realize, both of us employed in an MNC, and living in Gurgaon, we don’t have much time for our children. 

Hi, I am V.P., lucky father of two wonderful children, Meeta and Akash. Meeta is 10 years old and studying in Std. Four and Akash is just 6, in std. one, still finds excuses to miss the school, and off course my wife Sunanada, best mother, wife, daughter, best of both world, excelling everywhere, professional or personal life. 

Most of time, most of people like us, living in Metro city, coming late from office, after so much hasty and busy day, we end up providing all modern facilities like TV, Play stations, games, laptop, internet, android phones to our children, no personal care and quality time. But I am lucky enough to have Sunanada in my life, who just takes care of everything in my life and even takes care of our children in every possible way, a mother can, even after coming from hectic office hours.

So this is the story of summer vacation of this year. One day both of our children came home, and excitedly they announced that their summer vacation is going to start and will last for 1 months.

My loving wife hugged them and gave them one glass of milk, enriched with chocolate flavour. Meeta was all asking about, where we were going to spend our summer vacation this year, and younger Akash was also following her sister, speaking in his cute voice.

Sunanada after giving her a thought, told the children, we are going to your grandmother place for ten days.

Meeta and Akash exclaimed with joy and I have to look for dates, leave application, and reservation for our family.

Finally I am on the train with my family.

First time our children were going to my very native place Sherghati, where my parents, uncle aunt, my cousin brothers and many children of the family lives. A big home surrounded by garden, having many kinds of fruit trees, flowers and other vegetation, it make me remember my own childhood days, where we used to roam in the mango garden, riding on the mango tree and plucking the ripe mango and relishing its sweetest taste. I wanted my children to live those days at least for 10 days.

“Where are you lost”, my wife asked. And I came back in present.

Next morning we arrived at our destination. My cousin has sent vehicle already and sat inside and it began to move towards home. I was happy, roads are now made of concrete, at our time, and my daughter was busy in watching the fields, crops, cattle, birds, which she has just read in her books. I was filled with joy, a fresh air came inside the vehicle, more refreshing than any AC.

After 1 hour journey, we arrived at our home, I was amused to see that condition of electricity has improved, 20 hours electricity in a village, most of houses are made of concrete, and the peace around gave a relaxation and smile  to all of us. Our parents and family welcomed us, and my children were soon, busy with 10-12 kids around our home. 

My younger brother was also there. This is going to best summer trip ever. We settled and began to relax.

Next day at 5 AM:

We were on the way to visit our mango garden, having 100 trees in total, laden with the best mangoes of our area.

Image source: http://jaigurunurserygarden.com/images/fruit-plants/mango-tree1.jpg

We arrived and sat on the wooden khat under a mango tree. 

 

Image Source: http://mugup.info/appimg/Mango-Varieties/Heidi.jpg

Image Source: https://morningjoy.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/mango-bounty.jpg?w=774

The freshness of air, the aroma of different types of mangoes, and the sweet voice of Cuckoo, and then my son imitating cuckoo, my daughter asking SriKumar, care taker of garden, for mangoes, and the smile on my wife face, I thought the time to stop here forever. 

My brother, his wife Rekha and their children Rakhi and Suresh were happy to find us around them this year. And soon Srikumar gave us cool sugarcane juice and then ripe golden mango to eat.

We spent whole afternoon there, eating mangoes, then fresh watermelon, cucumber and in evening we returned back to our home, where my mother was busy in preparing Litti Chokha, traditional food of Bihar.

My children were very happy and busy, away from the crowd of a city, exploring and observing the tiny detail of the village and my brother’s children were telling all the details, as they have come here many times.

Days were passing very fast, sometimes we visiting to sugarcane field, sometime visiting the old historical place of some kingdom near our village, and having picnic.

One day early in the morning we planned to visit the BaijuDham.
we arrived at the river and bent to touch the water at the bank.
i saw something.

My reflection smiled, I didn’t.

As i was lost in past, in nostalgia. my reflection was dancing with the waves, with ripple and i was re-living the life at that time at that place.  
A place where I used to go with friends, bunking our class, and spending whole day, swimming in the river, going to the top of the hill near the hill, eating guavas, from the nearby garden. 

Image Source: http://www.thetexasrambler.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/2012-Fall-Foliage-Ride-219.jpg

The river’s water is still fresh and pure and we enjoyed whole day in river, playing water games, swimming and then made picnic on the hill. 

 

Image Source: http://www.novascotiaparks.ca/images/day-parks/Green-Hill.jpg

The view around the surrounding was great. we were amazed to see green vegetation, gardens, river flowing like serpent, sky and clouds,as overall they created a wonderful picturesque. My wife told the story to children, how a Shivling was emerged on the hill one night and then place was named as BiajuDham. After some day people from archaeological dept. came and they found remaining of a big temple after some excavation. There was effort from both the government and local people to re-establish it as a place to visit.

Children were listening very carefully and it was a nice watch to witness the curiosity on their cute face and their non ending innovative, sometime unanswerable questions. 

Most of the night, children were busy and spending night with my mother, listening stories and then sleeping there itself. It also provided some best together precious moments together.

How ten days passed, and again we have to be back in our life, we said bye to everyone and returned back to city, having satisfied to spend great quality time with our family, and a memorable vacation for our children where they not only enjoyed, but also learned much more than books and TV can provide them.

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This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.