It has been drizzling for the most part of the day today, here in Ipswich. I feel a very strange connection between some of the incidents that keep happening on a day-today life, like deja vu. Some events act as a time machine taking me back to my childhood incidents. They rekindle the memories of some sweet and cherished moments.
The fresh fragrance of the soil after it rained today reminded me of my hometown and my school going days. It was the same smell of the soil after the first rain and I still remember it as if it were yesterday. I remember the time when I used to go to school along with my sister Anuradha, my cousin Asha and other girl friends - Manjula, Susheela, Shahin, Prema. [Yes!!! I was the only boy in the gang and was the next youngest after my sister!!]; all of them happened to be our neighbours.
I remember waking up in the morning on a rainy day and wishing if I could sleep for a little more time. It seemed to be a perfect weather to tuck onerself under a warm blanket and savour the day in the bed. But, then, I would see my father sipping a hot cup of coffee and listening to the morning news in the Radio, reading some book or paper. It reminds me of the hot pappadams that my mom would prepare in the morning along with coffee, especially on a rainy day. I immediately wake up, brush my teeth and sit in the kitchen next to mother. The heat from the burning stove would give a very soothing and comforting feeling. Mom would prepare coffee and hands me over the freshly made hot pappadams .After my coffee [yes!!! i was a coffee buff since my childhood...], I would wake up my sister or my cousins [ours was a joint family]; listen to the radio along with my father and then, do some school work. Though it would be a cloudy, dull and gloomy day, as kids, we used to love rain...There were many reasons for it. With lots of greenery on our way to school, rainy season would always bring lots of varieties of fruits and berries in the plants. Soon after the school is over, all of us [our gang, usually headed by Manjula] would take to the woods and get all the ripe berries. Don't even know their names for sure, we would call them - Kepala, Kuntala, Jogi, Lambu [grown underground]. One more thing that fascinated us was NeerKaddi [a small plant whose transparent stem would have lots of water stored]. We would take these water sticks in our compass box and use it to erase our slates in schools. It also allowed us to play in water on our way home. Sometimes, if the rain is too heavy, the schools would declare holiday and we would be looking forward for that day. After our evening snacks, the gang would meet again either in our house or Manjula's or Prema's. We would play games like Chenna-Mane, Ludo, Snake & Ladder, Pokku. We would also play a game using bangle pieces and also, using book labels. A game of cards like Bank, Donkey, Bluff were also played sometimes [we weren't allowed to play cards in the evenings].As it would have been raining, sometimes, my mom wouldn't allow us to play any outdoor games or go to our friends' house.So, she would make us do our homework with a promise to tell us stories. Being a very passionate listener of the stories that I was, a good story from my mother was too much of a bribe to resist. I would finish my homework and immediately run to my mom to listen to a story. Being a very creative person, she would tell me stories, lots of them; every time, a new one with new characters and a different plot. While I would be sitting on a stool in the washing room or kitchen with my mouth open, completely involved in the story, she would be washing clothes, doing dishes or cooking dinner parallely. After the dinner, I would spend time with my father chatting about something or the other. Usually, he would show me the stars in the sky [if the clouds have moved and the sky is clear] and we try to track stars and constellations. Other times, he would try to teach me English grammer or World Geography or Kannada literature. [I guess, Kannada, English and Social were my father's favourite subjects]. Thus, my day would end...
As I grew up, started going to higher secondary school, I was more and more involved with studies and wanted to prove every other classmate of mine that I was the brightest of all. As I had quite a reputation of being an intelligent kid in the neighbourhood, my friends [with whom I had grew up with] were very understanding and they would help me in all the ways possible. They were very protective of me as I was one of the youngest members of the group then. These girls would come to my rescue whenever I was bullied by others in the school. I would go to their class and complain; they would come with their friends and would resolve the matter for me. We had to pass some paddy fields on the way to high school. I remember the rainy days during exams, when I would pass the fields reading some school book; slip and fall down into the field, drench myself and go home crying.
The rainy season also reminds me of the frequent power cuts in the nights when I was growing up. When there were heavy rain, lightning and thunderstorms, usually the electricity would be cut and sometimes, the power would be off for the whole night. As I was addicted to having a noisy fan [yes!!! even today, I prefer to have a table fan in my bed room turned on, along with the AirConditioner..:-)], I wouldn't sleep for most of the night. I would wake up, light a chimney or a candle, go to the hall and start reading a novel or some book until I felt sleepy. After a heavy rain in the morning, if the sky becomes clear in the night, I remember seeing many of my neighbours going out in the night with a lantern and a knife to catch fishes in the fields and water tunnels. Apparently, fishes from the first rain are quite tasty...[I wouldn't know as I am a vegetarian].
Anyways, there are lots of similar fond & familiar memories that ghush into my mind whenever I smell the fresh fragrance of the soil after a heavy rain. Today, it happened to be one of those days...There were so many other times when a specific smell would immediately rekindle my memories of specific incidents of the past. I believe that somehow, the brain would have stored these events of the past based on sensory stimuli. The recollection would just erupt when you smell a particular fragrance or see a specific view or taste a specific delicacy.
Don't you think so? Have you ever had these experiences??
The fresh fragrance of the soil after it rained today reminded me of my hometown and my school going days. It was the same smell of the soil after the first rain and I still remember it as if it were yesterday. I remember the time when I used to go to school along with my sister Anuradha, my cousin Asha and other girl friends - Manjula, Susheela, Shahin, Prema. [Yes!!! I was the only boy in the gang and was the next youngest after my sister!!]; all of them happened to be our neighbours.
I remember waking up in the morning on a rainy day and wishing if I could sleep for a little more time. It seemed to be a perfect weather to tuck onerself under a warm blanket and savour the day in the bed. But, then, I would see my father sipping a hot cup of coffee and listening to the morning news in the Radio, reading some book or paper. It reminds me of the hot pappadams that my mom would prepare in the morning along with coffee, especially on a rainy day. I immediately wake up, brush my teeth and sit in the kitchen next to mother. The heat from the burning stove would give a very soothing and comforting feeling. Mom would prepare coffee and hands me over the freshly made hot pappadams .After my coffee [yes!!! i was a coffee buff since my childhood...], I would wake up my sister or my cousins [ours was a joint family]; listen to the radio along with my father and then, do some school work. Though it would be a cloudy, dull and gloomy day, as kids, we used to love rain...There were many reasons for it. With lots of greenery on our way to school, rainy season would always bring lots of varieties of fruits and berries in the plants. Soon after the school is over, all of us [our gang, usually headed by Manjula] would take to the woods and get all the ripe berries. Don't even know their names for sure, we would call them - Kepala, Kuntala, Jogi, Lambu [grown underground]. One more thing that fascinated us was NeerKaddi [a small plant whose transparent stem would have lots of water stored]. We would take these water sticks in our compass box and use it to erase our slates in schools. It also allowed us to play in water on our way home. Sometimes, if the rain is too heavy, the schools would declare holiday and we would be looking forward for that day. After our evening snacks, the gang would meet again either in our house or Manjula's or Prema's. We would play games like Chenna-Mane, Ludo, Snake & Ladder, Pokku. We would also play a game using bangle pieces and also, using book labels. A game of cards like Bank, Donkey, Bluff were also played sometimes [we weren't allowed to play cards in the evenings].As it would have been raining, sometimes, my mom wouldn't allow us to play any outdoor games or go to our friends' house.So, she would make us do our homework with a promise to tell us stories. Being a very passionate listener of the stories that I was, a good story from my mother was too much of a bribe to resist. I would finish my homework and immediately run to my mom to listen to a story. Being a very creative person, she would tell me stories, lots of them; every time, a new one with new characters and a different plot. While I would be sitting on a stool in the washing room or kitchen with my mouth open, completely involved in the story, she would be washing clothes, doing dishes or cooking dinner parallely. After the dinner, I would spend time with my father chatting about something or the other. Usually, he would show me the stars in the sky [if the clouds have moved and the sky is clear] and we try to track stars and constellations. Other times, he would try to teach me English grammer or World Geography or Kannada literature. [I guess, Kannada, English and Social were my father's favourite subjects]. Thus, my day would end...
As I grew up, started going to higher secondary school, I was more and more involved with studies and wanted to prove every other classmate of mine that I was the brightest of all. As I had quite a reputation of being an intelligent kid in the neighbourhood, my friends [with whom I had grew up with] were very understanding and they would help me in all the ways possible. They were very protective of me as I was one of the youngest members of the group then. These girls would come to my rescue whenever I was bullied by others in the school. I would go to their class and complain; they would come with their friends and would resolve the matter for me. We had to pass some paddy fields on the way to high school. I remember the rainy days during exams, when I would pass the fields reading some school book; slip and fall down into the field, drench myself and go home crying.
The rainy season also reminds me of the frequent power cuts in the nights when I was growing up. When there were heavy rain, lightning and thunderstorms, usually the electricity would be cut and sometimes, the power would be off for the whole night. As I was addicted to having a noisy fan [yes!!! even today, I prefer to have a table fan in my bed room turned on, along with the AirConditioner..:-)], I wouldn't sleep for most of the night. I would wake up, light a chimney or a candle, go to the hall and start reading a novel or some book until I felt sleepy. After a heavy rain in the morning, if the sky becomes clear in the night, I remember seeing many of my neighbours going out in the night with a lantern and a knife to catch fishes in the fields and water tunnels. Apparently, fishes from the first rain are quite tasty...[I wouldn't know as I am a vegetarian].
Anyways, there are lots of similar fond & familiar memories that ghush into my mind whenever I smell the fresh fragrance of the soil after a heavy rain. Today, it happened to be one of those days...There were so many other times when a specific smell would immediately rekindle my memories of specific incidents of the past. I believe that somehow, the brain would have stored these events of the past based on sensory stimuli. The recollection would just erupt when you smell a particular fragrance or see a specific view or taste a specific delicacy.
Don't you think so? Have you ever had these experiences??
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