Of Disney Dads, Dragon Moms, And Summer Vacations

Let us talk a fun potpourri.

- Bindu Saxena

Nowadays, a school break means a holiday to a beach, a hill station, jungle, or a waterfront. It was not so in the time 20 years ago. Those were the times when we looked forward to summer vacations because it was in the default family systems that our aunts with our cousins would visit us.

Those days had an array of flavours - the anticipation of colossal fun awaited at home!

These are obsolete environments. The four siblings per family are archaic, and the two siblings are a passe. Mostly there is one or none. Cousins are few and far. No playful fights. No far-flung love.

Here, I talk about those times when older siblings were married. They would visit during summer vacations. These were those anecdotes that still make me smile ear to ear.

My niece, aged 3, had come to stay with us. After she left, my mom searched her rolling pin (belan) for every corner of the house, only to be dug out later from the laundry basket in the guest bathroom.

In a similar incident, three nephews clogged the bathroom drain and filled it with water without realising it would seep into the bedroom.

The furniture got swollen legs.

They used faucets as showers, sprinkling and bathing each other The roof had no option but to blow off tears.

Squeezing the toothpaste, empty shampoo bottles, and the last bit of hand wash bottle cleverly kept or hidden somewhere, odds and sods in drawers, and a few items missing or misplaced were the prevalent scenes.

Do these bring frustrations and make you angry?

I may laugh away at these cute moments, but when oft-repeated, a mom might turn an active Kintamani volcano. Even a peaceful one would get these triggers. These incidents from small children are there because they are kids. They are not bad, mad, or spoiled brats. They are humans learning how to process the world around them.