Sunday, November 26, 2006

Those Were The Days...

(a.k.a. The Wonder Years Tag)

This is my 50th post on this blog....

Thank you for all the applause, hope you could see me taking the bows there (not curtain calls, I am afraid. I am going to continue writing). So, I was thinking for a long time what should I write. I mean, I should be writing something important, about a topic I really feel about to mark this important milestone, right? I thought about a lot of topics, including a Marathi book I love, a new author I am reading, a great TV serial I am watching right now. But then I thought, what in the world is more important than... “me”?

So, I am taking up a great tag, started by one of my favourite blog-writers (this has nothing to do with the fact that she called me “The King of Commenters” or something like that)

The Wonder Years Tag

1.Write 8-10 things about childhood ( 1-12 years) that you miss.
2.Write 8-10 things that you disliked about childhood.
3.Tag a few people.


Since the tag is about 1-12 years, I have to leave out anything we did in 8-10 std in school, which is bad, since 10th std was when we had the most fun in school. Also, I don't remember much till when I was 2-3 years old, so cannot write anything about that.

What I miss about my childhood


  1. The long diwali vacations and even longer summer vacations. We used to go to Nasik every summer.

  2. School: I cannot miss it more. We had the greatest group in school, and being the top of class (which directly meant top of batch), we were (almost) every teacher's favourite. I miss that preferential treatment in school.

  3. Cricket matches: we played cricket on weekends using bats and rubber balls. In the school though, it was writing pads and plastic balls. We had the record of scoring 24 runs in an over. In fact that was 24 runs in 2 balls, if I remember correctly, since after so many wides, the over was cancelled, making the score 24 runs, no wickets, 0 balls.

  4. Football in break: This wasn't using normal footballs, or even normal rubber balls. We used to play with the hemispherical rubber balls which were broken due to excessive beating in cricket. The ball used to trace a nice circular route when kicked, which accounted for a lot of kicks to the shins we got while playing. Also, watching the ball turning away from goal without anybody touching it was a bit of fun for everybody involved (in defending team of course)

  5. Competitive exams: and of course, classes for these exams. It was fun attending the classes before and after the school with my best friends.

  6. Playing with my cousins: in nasik. I am older than all my maternal cousins. And frankly, my sister being 5 years older than me, while we all being born within 5 years of each other, she is kind of outside our group. Anyways, I miss playing with them.

  7. Being the youngest of all the cousins on my father's side. Well, I am still the youngest, and still get all the attention I want for that, but it was much more fun when I was in school and “the kid” in all senses of the word.

  8. Watching the Sunday morning serials, with my parents. This was more for the sunday morning heavy breakfast, and second coffee, than actual serials. Well, we had some good serials then, including Ramayan, Mahabharat. Of course, watching Rangoli was a bit of event too.

  9. Late night cards sessions with my parents, my cousins, my grandparents. These were once in a while, holiday sessions, which would later include coffee (I learnt to make coffee when I was pretty young). There were also movie sessions on saturday nights.

  10. “Laurel & Hardy” and “Tom & Jerry”: my friend had video cassettes. Our deep study of these started in his house watching those movies on his VCR. I still have the memories of us sitting in his room on the roof of his house, watching the movies.



What I disliked about childhood

I don't remember many things which I actively disliked or hated in school. Let me try and think some of them up.


  1. I was an accident-prone kid. I broke the bone in my right hand when I was 2 years old, the other bone was broken when I was in 8th standard. I had so many hospital visits that I am pretty much sick of hospitals now.

  2. The teachers who used to beat students up. And then there was a teacher who used to tell me every day that I would do better to not be friends with my best friend.

  3. Drawing class in school: unfortunately, my drawings did not count as modern art too. But though I could and did keep my colors inside the lines, drawing the lines themselves was a bad. My drawing submission eve was the time when my mother and sister drew the requisite things while I tried to fill colors.

  4. Learning Marathi Grammar: I cannot recall even one of the things they taught us, except where to put what in a sentence.



Sorry, I can't go on... once I started, I realised how many bad memories I have... I am sure my (auto)biography will tell all how I became such a great man in spite of such adversities...


Whom I am going to tag

This is going to raise my spirits... So Sid, you do take up tags pretty well, so here's one more. Almost everybody else I know has already picked up this tag, so *donning helmet and protective suit*, I tag, you know.... *running off to bomb shelter*

The Great Eagle has spoken...

Quote of The Day:

People who get nostalgic about childhood were obviously never children.
- Bill Watterson (1958 - ), Calvin and Hobbes

10 Comments:

silverine said...

"hope you could see me taking the bows there (not curtain calls, I am afraid. I am going to continue writing)"

*whew* what a relief :)

Beautiful post. Almost lived your childhood with you :) Reminded me of mine, with lots of cousins, relatives etc. Thanks to this great institution called "family" we the Indian kids had some great time during our childhood.

Thanks O Great Eagle for taking up my humble tag!

SiD said...

great one!!!
and again.. i guess there is going to be some copy paste here.. when I do this... ;)
I wanted you to continue when u ended abrubtly... I was reliving my school days.. the marathi replaced by sanskrit.. drawing...
chalo rest in my tag!!!

and ya congrats for your 50th blog...

Amey said...

@Silverine: Yes, extended families are always fun, especially during childhood. And being the youngest member in the family is even more fun ;)
This was actually a great tag. Had to stop at 10 for things I enjoyed during childhood, and some of the things did not make the cut though.

@Sid: I don't remember many things I hated during my childhood (call it mental block if you will).
Grammer in any language is bad, and grammer in your mother tongue (or first language) is always the worst... You are supposed to know many things which you will never use in your life.

SiD said...

Done!!

Cuckoo said...

First let me congratulate you for 50th post. Claps !!! Can you hear them?

Beautiful post. Good that you took up this tag. Could know a bit more about you. Thanks. :) Loved your style of playing football and yes long summer vacations with all the cousins are always cherished.
Some of the things I can relate to my childhood as well. And even I would find it difficult to write what I disliked.

LOLLL @ *donning helmet and protective suit*, I tag, you know.... *running off to bomb shelter*. Who’s that fortunate one? :P

Liked your way of writing. Claps again.

Amey said...

@Sid: Fast service :) I think certain people we know can learn from from you...

@Cuckoo: Hey, come out of the memory block, we won't blame you if you hated anything about your childhood ;)
The fortunate one? Oh, I am again running off to my shelter.
Thanks for all the claps. I am going to record them and use the track for my future posts, is that ok?

tulipspeaks said...

half a century post! all the best and hope u'll continue blogging for many more years to come ;)

havent read the post. kinda in a rush. will come back to it asap.


=ammu=

Amey said...

@Tulip: Thank you, thank you...
And be back soon. Missing your comments, and your blog...

tulipspeaks said...

so many stuff we miss isn't it.. guess thats wht makes it special.

new updates?

btwn i cant comment using my usual account :(

tulipspeaks.blogspot.com

=ammu=

Amey said...

@Amutha: We wish we never had grown up, right? Sigh...
There seems to be some problem with the blogger, people are not able to comment on beta blogs using classic account. :(