Those were the days ... !!

If there ever was a picture that spoke a thousand words (maybe a million ... maybe more), its probably this ...



Yeah those were the days ...
When the towel acted as a photo background ...
When you thought of everything other than money (and related entities) ...
When 50 paise sufficed for a day's journey from home to school and back ...
When I avoided going back home by bus so that I can save 25 paise to ... wait ... not to own a house ... but to see myself gorging on the Raspberry ice cream that was for Rs. 3
When wearing a white school uniform should have acted a reminder to keep it clean ... but instead it was the exact opposite ... a white uniform meant that it had to be DIRTIED ...
When innocence won over almost everything ...
When the scolding received from parents resulted in making a mental note of things ...
When Akku-Takku, Lappa-Chhupi and Langdi were the HEP games ...
When haircuts were done on a SHEVGE-CHA-ZHAAD (drumstick tree)
When summer meant climbing up the Jamun tree and getting Jamuns for the entire Basti ...
When we made a beeline at the place of The PATILS to catch a glimpse of Chitrahaar and Mickey-Donald or the weekend movies ...
When Zatra (Mela) was the event of the year ...
When the place to shit was a place where the most luxurious township of the area stands today ...
When Ganpati meant watching 4 movies from 6 pm to 6 am behind the Mandal ... the movies being ... Gair Kanooni, Bhrashtachaar, Mitti aur Sona and Lashkar ... its a bloody tough challenge to locate these movies ...
When I didnt have to think twice (probably more now) to wrestle a girl over a petty reason ...
When my sister won 2 cans of Complan full of marbles defeating all the guys in the Basti ...

But the most important of all ... you wanted to get done with school as soon as possible and thought that life after school would be rosy ... well ... almost ... sigh ... Yeah ... those were the days ... Cheers ... !!