Good Old Days

               

20th November

11PM

I still remember the thrill of running away every time one of us broke a glass while playing cricket. Every single evening the whole complex was buzzing with activity. There was noise, chaos and every inch of space was used to play either the regular or self Invented games.

Injuries were something to be proud of. Fights and arguments were fierce but quickly forgotten. To ultimately resolve an argument there was one sincerely Honest person whom all of us trusted.
He was the big guy and he never lied. All accepted his decision and only after he gave his verdict the game would continue.

Those were days when there was no Internet, no cable tv, no fast food joints, no mobile phones and very few coaching classes. 

Those were days when the building complexes were considered to be a heaven for all resident children. All sorts of games were played, right from Cricket to lagori, from tennis(with a plastic ball and both hands as the racket)to Kanchi (marbles) from football and badminton to langdi and of course cant gorget games like chor police, poison medicine, land and water etc.

5 pm onwards was the official play time. During school days 5 pm was magical time. An hour before one suddenly became extra studios and would be seen with books silently convincing the parents that all is perfect at the academic front. If you were sick that day, at around 5 PM you would start feeling better.

The only way the session would end was with loud Impatient cries of angry parents from their respective balconies or kitchen windows calling us back home.  Back home was some regular nagging, some good food and then we would watch some really classy and fantastic TV serials like “Ye jo hai zindagi”, Nukkad, Hum log etc.]

Nobody hid behind their main doors and plonked themselves in front of their own TV sets. 

I harldy watched a cricket match in my own house. Important cricket matches often resulted into building get togethers. Zindagi was vibrant in every single nukkad and there was a lot of Hum ness between Logs.

Here I would like to introduce you to a rare brand of English language. The English we spoke was a direct translation of Hindi which was a direct translation of marathi. A few examples…
Coming then come fast. What to do re, he is like that only. Then what (instead of “ofcourse”). Morning morning dont eat my head. Gone mad or what. Then what happened you know? Anything haan, Anyways your fathers what goes?(this we never said. but I could not resist the temptation of adding it here.)

Now its for you to figure out the original Hindi or vernacular sentences.

~ @pathak_says