Pleasure in simplicity

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Have you seen people travel lately. All are so smartly dressed and their baggage is equally smart. I am so fascinated by colourful things. Will always look at the one odd neon or orange suitcase with all desires to own it. Then the rational mind takes over and tell me about durability of things and whether I will like it for the next ten trips of mine. I have friends who are always buying new suitcases. I still remember my Dad getting a mustard coloured hard top VIP suitcase from Calcutta. We were all so fascinated by it. In those days we made covers for all our suitcase. Cloth cover with black zips were washed after you came back from a trip.

In my childhood, Mumbai was the most fascinating of the places in my mind. All my hep cousins and relatives lived in Mumbai. They talked different and they dressed different too. We were all so besotted. We heard names and tried to memorise them so that when we went to Bombay, we could brag that we knew. My school friends had never been to Bombay. All their family was in Kolkata, Patna, Lucknow or Delhi.
My parents sent me alone to my Masi s place in Bombay with Dad s Mama Mami and two boys. they were my cousins more than my Dad s cousins. The Mama and Mami were the cutest sweetest and most loving amongst all my Aunts and Uncles. As the midnight train chugged out of Dhanbad, my cousins were acting like pros. I did not know anything about travel of two nights by train to Mumbai. Then there was a fight about who will sleep on the upper berth. I got to sleep up as the younger cousin wanted to be with his mother. I was so scared, apprehensive and excited.I remember Mami having wonderful food in the train and she had cashewnuts. It was such a luxury in those days. In our house, the dry fruits came out for special occasions like Diwali and Gujarati new years. Not that we were refused dry fruits but we knew it was meant for special occasions.

Going for chai to the railway station was the coolest thing we could do in Dhanbad. That drive and a glass of tea would give us a high for days. Some days Uncle would get us Meetha Paan to eat. We loved the small things and felt so happy about it. Simple pleasures of life....

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