STORY : Dhruv’s Summer Vacation

By Vani Balaraman

Dhruv was 8 years old and lived in Bengaluru, the IT capital of India . Dhruv’s mother and father worked as software engineers .

Dhruv had finished his annual exams and had just begun his summer vacations

His neighbour Kushi, came running and said that she was off to Singapore for a vacation

His friend Sanjana was off to Disneyland in HongKong. Both girls were delirious with excitement

Poor Dhruv. He felt bad. His amma and daddy had planned to send him off to his granny’s place , Tenali, in Andhra Pradesh

Amma had told him that granny was eagerly waiting for his school vacations so that he could visit her .

Dhruv was worried and felt sad. Where was Disneyland. And where was Tenali. His friends would mock at him if he told them about visiting an Indian town.

Tenali did not have malls. His granny did not have PlayStation or gizmos which could keep him engaged.

Above all , his English teacher had asked all the kids to write an essay on how they spent their vacation

What was he supposed to do in Tenali ? He wondered , as he boarded the train with his parents to Tenali.

He mocked -did he have to sit and squat mosquitoes all day!

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The train rolled into Tenali junction. Unlike Bengaluru railway stations, Tenali junction was small. There were numerous rickshaw pullers unlike motorized autos in Bengaluru

Even as the rickshaw puller stopped at the gate of his granny’s house, granny had come on to the entrance , with her arms outstretched to welcome Dhruv and his parents

Pink bougainvillea villa creepers and coconut trees adorned the entrance to granny’s home

Days passed by and soon Dhruv had taken a liking to grandma and her town

Unlike Bengaluru where Dhruv just had potted plants, granny had a huge kitchen garden which she attended to lovingly

Every day Dhruv looked forward to watering the plants, pulling out the weeds and he squealed with delight every time he saw a new vegetable bud

There were birds chirping all day long and Dhruv enjoyed chasing colorful butterflies.

Dhruv enjoyed listening to stories that his grand mother narrated – there were stories of her childhood, her friends , her school , well ! Grand mother just had the right stories for every occasion

Apparently grandma never had school buses and they took a long dusty village road to reach a school in a near by town. Grandma told him a story on how she thought she met a giant on the way to school one day

Dhruv listened to her stories of her childhood with utmost attention. Grandma was the best story teller and entertainer in town ! And not once did Dhruv switch on a TV set that lay in one corner of the village house

On most days, Dhruv was seen sitting on the verandah adjoining the garden and enjoying his breakfast or evening snacks.

Dhruv’s school did not have many trees and they ate lunch at school in their cafeteria . He loved the

idea of sitting under the shade of a tree to enjoy his lunch

Since it was peak summer , Dhruv and granny placed a small bowl of water for the birds to quench their thirst

Granny had a pet named Shera. Soon Dhruv and Shera had become friends too and started sharing a special bonding for each other

His grand father owned few farm lands and took him to the farms one morning.

Never before in his life had Dhruv seen such large expanse of green . Golden yellow corn swayed in the hot summer afternoon wind.

Unmindful of the dry summer winds and dust blowing across his face and drenching his shirt with sweat , Dhruv felt happy watching the undulating sea of green around him.

Dhruv and grandpa had painstakingly made a kite and Dhruv took great delight in flying the kite on the farm . “Orrrr “ the kite flew higher and higher.

Farmers working on the fields were happy to see Dhruv, after all his grand father had informed them that Dhruv was arriving from Bengaluru !

Back home after a visit to the field, Dhruv lapped up a simple meal of dal and rice with dollops of ghee , and some vegetable curry that his granny had lovingly prepared for him, the vegetables for which were fetched from their own kitchen garden.

He washed it all down with a cool buttermilk drink - spiced with curry leaves , jeera and salt

Had it been Bengaluru, Dhruv would have stared at the idiot box aka TV and not a morsel of rice or chappati would have gone down his throat

Running around the fields had tired. Dhruv He pulled out a charpoy and enjoyed his afternoon siesta on the verandah

The entire street knew Dhruv was in town. Dhruv has made friends with many boys in his neighbourhood

Dhruv soon learnt gilli danda, Kho-Kho and kabaddi , games he had never played in school or with his friends in Bengaluru.

He was soon climbing guava trees, knocking down mangoes from mango trees and eating them raw

He did fall down on a few occasions but that didn’t stop him from climbing more guava and mango trees

On some evenings, grand pa and granny took him to the town market , bustling with shop keepers selling their wares. The town did not have a mall to boast about, but Dhruv realized that a town market had its own charm – with temples and churches adorning one end of the market, and vegetable and fruit sellers adorning the other . The shoppers from nearby villages were lapping it all up – cheap plastic toys , earthern pots and aluminium cookware

On one end of the market , there was also a local village carnival with joy rides – a merry-go-round and giant wheel . A balloon seller was making brisk business selling balloons and cotton candy

His grand father also took him to watch a Telugu movie in a local theatre one evening

That evening, Dhruv pulled out his holiday homework . He knew just what he had to write.

He began writing about his train journey, the undulating sea of green, the kitchen garden , the town fair.

There was no stopping him

As he closed his holiday homework, Dhruv let out a smile

May be , his holiday trip was the best amongst his friends and his essay will secure an A+ from his teacher

The holidays were drawing to a close

Amma and daddy arrived from Bengaluru to take back Dhruv back home

Dhruv leaped and jumped and received his parents at the gate and couldn’t stop narrating his little adventures in the small town.

Amma and daddy were glad to know that Dhruv had taken a liking to granny and her marvelous little town

Dhruv waved a huge good bye to his grand parents and gave Sheru a big hug when it was time to go back home

The train had pulled into Bengaluru station. School was reopening the next day

Dhruv could not hold his excitement . He was eagerly waiting to narrate his adventures in the kitchen garden , his game of gilli ganda and kho -kho with his city friends

As Dhruv kept his school bag ready for first day of school, he remembered to put in his English essay titled “Dhruv’s Summer vacation” into his bag

Dhruv was already looking forward to spending his Dusshera vacations with granny and grandpa

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