Life is easy kya karein

Evening snack during the summer months was water melon. We call it 'turbooz' in Hindi. Mumbai calls it 'Kalingar'. The water melon was cut into half moon shape for all of us children. Due to shortage of water and electricity, the refrigerator barely worked. We children hardly opened it to keep it cool even when there was a power cut. Dad and Uncle liked cold 'Chaas' and water. During the 'loo' ( not toilet) when the afternoon heat and a wind was at its peak, we shut all windows and stayed indoors. The joy was watching Amitabh Bachchan movies on VCR while the electricity was there. Earlier when I was the only child in my house, we slept on the neighbour's terrace. This was 'Ratan Kaki' s terrace. We called it ' saamey waadi chhat' .  That was in our compound. The single ground floor houses had a common terrace with no boundary. All neighbours came up to sleep like community living. Each one put their own 'Chattaai' or mats...

Summers in Mumbai start with ample time to read the newspapers. The newspapers these days stress me out. Earlier only the fashion magazines managed to make me feel ugly, now even a entertainment paper is telling me how bad I am. It starts with clothes, branding, advertising, covering every single fashion show and hairstyle. Bombay Times tells you which actor is taking a flight and wearing what clothes. The actually write captions like  XYZ is wearing shades to block the sun or carrying a jacket for a comfortable flight. It goes on to Winter make up skills, Summer coolers, Beauty tips for the heat, which sun block to use and what SPF, How to plan your vacation, pack your bags, shop during a holiday and for a holiday. In between all this, I am supposed to try out the new Sale at Marks and Spencer as it is my cat's anniversary, I have to buy gold for Akshay Tritiya and a house in the hills, I can book a flat at Lodha and provide LSF which is Life Style Factor for my child. No one bot...