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.
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| Image source: http://jaigurunurserygarden.com/images/fruit-plants/mango-tree1.jpg |
We arrived and sat on the
wooden khat under a mango tree.
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| Image Source: http://mugup.info/appimg/Mango-Varieties/Heidi.jpg |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
