At the lunch table we were discussing things that we did as kids, I have listed below some of the most common ones, I know this is a sure shot way of declaring my age to all and sundry...but what the h*** I believe I am and will remain 18 till I die...
1) Renting Bicycles - We would rent bicycles by the hour, each person having a personal favourite for which we were ready to wait the extra 10-15 mins incase it was already rented to someone else, then the haggling with the shopkeeper incase he charged extra because we arrived 5-10 mins late after the appointed hour. Also as we were forbidden from riding the bicycles on the roads,we would end up with bruised ankles and legs thanks to accidentally grazing them on the pedal and chain of the cycles as we wheeled the bicycles till our housing complex
2) "Pepsicola" - No I'm not referring to the Cola marketed by Pepsico, rather this is frozen treat made of water , sugar and fruit drink concentrate, that is filled in plastic tubes. Each costing 25p for the regular sized ones or 50p for the extra large ones or the more expensive "Milk Pepsicola" which was made of milk, sugar and delightful flavours like Chocolate, Pista, Mango and Rose. I'll have you know that the Chocolate flavoured one was my favourite. My mum used to come pick me up from school and incase she ever happened to stop at the grocery store on the way back we would get one of the aforementioned Pepsicolas.
3) Big Babol - I remember collecting the wrapper of this bubble gum, I forget the deal, but I guess it was something like for every five wrapper you would be one bubble gum free...
4) Gully Cricket - Yeah we had an all girls team and used to have a blast playing Cricket with a tennis ball and the most mind-boggling rules.
- One Tappi out - If the ball is caught after just one bounce off the bat, you were declared out!!!
- Full Toss out - If you hit the ball and it crossed the boundary, you were declared out!!!
- If you hit a window-pane, you were SUPEROUT, though there was no one left on the field to declare you out after that, with the players scattering in all direction to avoid being caught by the house owner!!!
5) Climbing trees, walls, water tanks etc - We just loved climbing trees, there were two guava trees behind my building and they were favourites with us kids, as they were quite easy to climb and had the most sweet guavas. Then there was the hilarious habit of climbing on the housing complex compound wall and walking on it till the point to where it was further enhanced for safety with barbed wire. No I didn't spend my childhood in a maximum security prison, barbed wire mounted on iron stands was used to increase the height of boundary walls and I believe it is still used in some area, though my housing complex now has replaced it with an iron fence.
6) Raiding fruits off trees - There were quite a variety of fruit trees in and in the vicinity of housing complex. We had Guava, Tamarind and Jaamun trees (a tall tree bearing a purple fruit). The school which shares the west boundry wall with my housing complex had mango trees, the bungalow which was situated just outside the south boundary had Avla trees. Come Summer vacation kids of all ages would raid these trees, getting the fruit off the society trees was quite easy but the getting the ones off the school compound and the bungalow required careful planning. For we had to deal with the society watchman and the owner of the bungalow (this fellow was quite vicious, he once chased us with a knife).
I could go on for ever...
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