My hometown

A quaint little town tucked away in the hills .A pretty river running by on one side and lush green forests all around hiding it from outside view.The beautiful temple around which the town grew, the path to the temple with stones on either side.The majestic AnjaneyaSwamy statue by the steps before entering the main Rama temple.
The Rathotsavam in the evenings , waiting with ammamma at the gate,with the arathi plate with camphor.. or going down the gutta and then waiting with everybody ... and finally the chariot passing us by stopping at every house ..

Running down the stairs of the temple right into the Godavari .. Picking up the baked mud from the river banks and using it (as clay) to make matchbox-lorry's wheels and all other types of playthings.Playing for hours in the water , picking up multicoloured-multishaped stones and stowing them in places where Tataiyya cant find them (he would always pull our legs about throwing them away but year after year , when we would hurry back there for the next vacation , we would find them kept as safely as we left them)

Nights on the terrace,in the cool breeze , waking up to the sound of parrots or the sudden showers where the poor parents and grandparents wouldn't know if they should put the mattresses in first or all the monkeys who are having so much fun in the rain that they refuse to get inside the house.Talking of monkeys ,there was always an endless stream of them , having the bath-house outside the house on the other end of the courtyard, I remember the day when a cousin stayed inside even after the bath because there were monkeys on top of the 'sajja' :)

The time we used to spend 'gutta-meeda' in the evenings , the walks till there and then just running around or 'exploring' the Ramadasu Mandiram or by that pretty-flower tree , collecting the white flowers with the yellow insides that we used to bend inside out and make it look like a designer flower ...

The guy who used to come down the road selling the (paper) 'rekulu' to make that yummy sweet (which is one of my favourites to date!)
The day I saw little pieces of ice fall with the rain (yes,in that hot little town with scorching summer heat of at least a 40 Degrees C and going up to 50 never seen ice-rain again to date)
The April 1st when I fooled my mom about the aakkoora guy (my first Fools Day prank)
The small little street behind the temple where ammamma would take us to shop , and I still have those 2 circular magnetic 'deity-snaps'
The coin with Sita-Rama Kalyanam scene on one side and Hanuman on the other that I carry with me .

The fateful day I found out that the dhobis use the mud by the riverside to wash clothes and when I went "EWWWWWWWW" , my mom said what do you think your Rin soap is made of !! (Trust me ,I did not believe that for a very long time !! )

The Chicken-pox dominated summer where 6 cousins went out flat with chicken pox , all the neem leaves in the house ... 6 cranky kids getting on the nerves of the moms :)) (Should have listened to them and shouldn't have scratched my nose :D)

Going to the theatre which had the Shri Krishna design on the wall , remember seeing a movie where Chiranjeevi had worn this weird pink shirt , and of course he was the caped-crusader (Kondaveeti Donga I think)

The goli soda in the break with the colored marble stuck in the neck and the vendor pushing it in with style and the pop sound ! and how could I forget the Gold Spot !! Don't think they make that anymore , I remember, going out with Tataiyya and getting to have that was like a treat .... Oh and there was this time , when a cousin decided to go in for soda and said that it was the same as goli soda but just a little bit stronger , and he also added that there was the art of keeping it in your mouth (without swallowing it) (who'll manage to do that for the longest period of time) , should have never tried that , it felt like the insides of my mouth were being torn apart or being attacked by something . :))

The fights where we would stop talking to each other for a while or perhaps stop talking till the next vacation , (there were no mobile phones or perhaps even telephones in those days, and of course letter writing has always been an art )
Then again ,we would get back to 'stealing' the yummy mango pickles 'drying' on the terrace , finish it off and make all sorts of innocent expressions when ammamma used to pull us up for that :))

Sigh , summer vacations must have been the best part of my childhood ...Long nights with story telling ,evenings on the hill , mornings by the river , temple visits , nights on the terrace .. Seems like it was ages ago .. and yet , the memories are just as fresh ...