Seasons

Few weeks back I watched Atul Kumar’s play The Blue Mug at Ranga Shankara. The cast includes all the biggies of theatrical circle: Vinay Pathak, Sheeba Chadha, Rajat Kapoor, Ranvir Shorey, Munish Bharadwaj and Konkona Sen.The play doesn’t includes a story , it’s just about the memories of the characters who are suffering from the disorder of short term memory loss. They keep on reliving their past with mostly sweet and few sour memories. One of the memories of Rajat kapoor, who play a person from old Delhi, is the celebrations which come with each season and this post is about that.

I rarely can differentiate between seasons while I was there in Pune and then here in Bangalore. Being from a place in Uttaranchal, which has almost extreme of all the seasons it was actually a nice change. Pune I believe has just two form of weather. It’s either summer or rainy season . There you will find girls either in attire which is totally out of bandit queen (with scarf all around hair and face and a sun coat) or with an umbrella plus raincoat. I religiously followed this dress code and was happy with the fact that at least there are no winters: P .Bangalore boast of the best weather in India. It’s neither too hot nor too cold. It’s just perfect. But Rajat kapoor’s memory of celebration of weather was just so true for people like me. I just hate winters for the sheer reason that it’s just too dull and on top of that adds more to my plumpness (by wearing everything right from thermals to sweaters to jackets and what not). But how can I forgot the memories which I had from this season. The fight for “ garam Rajai “ and who will go out of it to bring something from the kitchen. Being at my grandmother’s room to heat ourselves in the “ Angeethi “ , having fight with my brother to light the “ angeethi” with coal , Mummy’s hot tea and pakoras(only if she is in mood to come out of the “ rajai” herself) , my favorite “ moongfali(peanut) and various type of “gajaks” . The special “ Gajar ka halwa” as carrots will come only during winters. Gulping numerous cups of hot masala tea and “ khatai” made up of “malta(a variety of orange).If we are at my grandmother’s place then just running around in snow and catching cold the next day.

Spring arrives with Holi and so does the time for “bhuttas and challi (corn)”, time for mother to make “aam ka achar” and us sneaking into terrace to have a piece or two of it . Summers means mangoes! The huge “ Dushari aam “ soaked in water and fight for the biggest one. There would be a competition at my granny’s place among us children for plucking the maximum “ litchis” from the tree. Rushing to the “chuski” vendor outside the school gate and enjoying two rupee chuski . Rain means lot of gossip sessions with cousins ;) over tea and rainbow of umbrellas open in the classroom .

There are so many of the memories associated with each of the seasons that it’s very difficult to pen down everything over here. I miss those days spread across the seasons with each bringing its own delight .