Vacation wasted

This year vacation has begun but everything seems unnatural. This unnatural mood of nature needlessly negated the near final preparations for an excursion down south and forced to stay put indoors. A boy who prefers to remain outdoors all through the year is disheartened and disgusted to hear that the dams have been opened.

The damn good days are brushing past at jet speed and dull school days are fast approaching with bated breath stretching their arms and drawing the boy’s attention to do his homework and readying the essay on how he spent his vacation.

The boy on the other hand is ruminating over the numerous varieties of duels that were debated upon and domesticated for dealing delicately and dramatically to endure and relive the ancient warfare, along with it related ammunitions in the form of toys were procured but those not readily available located and decided well in advance with the distant cousins the ways and means to deploy during the holidays, all appearing to disappear in the thin air, with it the hopes of long distance horseback rides also remained a fantasy and hung as if frozen or in suspended animation.

The week long train journey to the hometown, with break journey at important towns, with quick shopping from the nearby markets, the breakfast sessions in the trains, the lunch sessions on the railway canteens, the dinner ordered from the pantry car had a pride of place in the mind of the school boy.

The arrangements with regard to the dresses that need to be packed in layers and to be worn as per the occasions it is meant for and clothes to be kept handy in order not to waste time in searching and make a mess of the arrangements in the suitcase. Prepare a check list of what all need to be taken as the holidays is for almost a month and cannot be made available if forgotten after the journey begins. The story books, board games, cards, albums, copies of certificates and photographs of medallions won need to be kept in order to show the cousins who are also bent upon showing their achievements and producing these things as a proof in case they are not believed.

The question and answer sessions with the elders from uncles to grandfathers were also earmarked to give them the insight as to what lies in future from them for the elders.

The journey per se had a lot of other areas to savour. There was the anxious wait for stations to approach with hot and delicious dishes for breakfast along with hot tea and coffee to choose from. Vendors can be seen selling fancy items, toys and story books by yelling, and highlighting the quality and worthiness of their stuff. After breakfast and viewing from the window seats of the train the plains and also hills and mountains at a distance and seeing from close quarters the cows and goats grazing in the fields and scarecrows as watch guards overlooking the acres of fields of numerous crops awaiting the harvesting season.

Thereafter on reaching almost at the middle of the long journey towards south, in the afternoon the boy would be getting ready for lunch from the station known for mouth watering side dishes for lunch. Lunch having been served and satisfied to the soul’s content the boy feels sleepy and collapses on the berth and goes to sleep. In his sleep he starts dreaming about his near future as well as his distant future. He dreams to have reached his hometown to a rousing welcome from his grandparents and cousins. He revels on the games he won in the board games by outmanouvering his cousins and thinks of the praises heaped on him by his grandparents added to which he finds himself gifted with toys.

When he wakes up he finds he is still in the train and it is evening time and what he thought was a dream. It was also time for evening snacks and tea, which was yet to be offered to him by his mother after taking him to the wash basin at the corner of the compartment and getting him wash his face and brush his teeth and freshened up.

The boy comes back to his berth and eats the snacks and sips the tea and feels the cool wind, blowing in the opposite direction to which the train is speeding up. He also again gets transported to what he dreamt and started to visualize the chances of his dream coming true. After the visualization he began to plan how to make his dream come true. He starts analysing his strengths and his cousin’s weakness, and registers the games in which he finds his cousin better than him and decides to make it a point not to enter into a wager for such games. Instead he tries to remember in the corners of his mind the games that suit him best and which he shall initiate to play. By the time he finalizes his strategy the sun seemed to have set and it was dark outside the train and lights were on inside the train. It was time for little prayer and thereafter read the story book for an hour and be ready for dinner.

The dinner arrived at around nine pm and his mother served him and gestured him to go to sleep which he did as an obedient son. He knew he would not take much time to fall asleep as he was excited at the very thought that he will be reaching his dream destination, his hometown next day morning around 10 am. With such thoughts he lodged himself on the middle berth and closed his eyes and covered himself with the blanket that was offered to him by his mother and went off to sleep.

As expected the train was running on time and hence they reached their hometown station also at good time.

Suddenly he heard a voice coming from behind. It was his sister asking him to get ready for school otherwise he will miss the school bus.