The view out of my window was mesmerizing and the wind played its mean part to blink my eyes with its roar of hasty gush. A rail of running lush green trees lined up to welcome me into their dense for hidden treasures. Let’s travel back in time when the dusty roads were less traveled by luxury cars and were rode by huge bumpy red colored boxes of ill fitted furnishing of an ST bus. Distorted cushion seats, dingy covers and cramped public transport buses made no means of good travel companion in those days. Yet for years I have preserved those crude memories of my childhood as the best gift my parents could ever give me. 

My father loved traveling and was always keen on planning small outings in vacations mostly to our native place. Frequently he also took us around countryside small towns with serene beaches and lush green valleys. Little did I know that those memories will become the most treasured bible stories of my lifetime? 

Today I sit smugly belted in our own sedan car and heading for a modernly adorned vacation with the family. Driving our kids in the most comfortable yet affordable mode of journey becomes our first focus when we plan a vacation. Now at this moment my mind races back to the memories of our bumpy rides in public transports that we took for all our family holidays. As I look out through my shut air conditioned car windows, the sense of the breeze brings me back that same scent of soil from time. The soft cushion below me critically frown at the ramshackle bus seats on which we had build our lovely travel journals. Each time I passed packets of chips and biscuits to my kids I smelled the aroma of garam bhajiyas and roasted groundnuts that our father passed us through those grilled windows of our dusty ST bus. Nostalgic aroma of those roadside goodies can easily raise my appetite at any time.

My mother always carried freshly made food items that she took endless efforts to prepare the night before our journey. Our father meticulously arranged cloths for a week’s trip for five members in just two suitcases and a single handbag. Today we have loaded our car dickey with two suitcases plus five handbags along with one bag full of packed food items brought from the nearby grocery shop, for a family of four members. I take out some scented wipes and fell it fresh on my flesh that has been untouched by any dust particle ever since we started the journey. Back then I never did bother that my face needed to be papered even for a second till we ended our trip.

Our trips focused on a lot of sight seeing that we captured with our eyes and not with our flashy camera lenses. Most destinations had lesser crowds and large areas of deserted lush green pastures with absolutely no junk of bottles and waste wrappers around. Our favorite pass time would be looking around for charming and rare wild plants and trees which made an amazing impression with its mesmerizing fruits and flowers. We walked for miles to find a suitable spot to rest and open our dabbas for a quick desi munch. We drank water from the crudest of the sources available locally.

Our dadaji owned a big teak wood and mud house called as a ‘Wada’. Longing memories are still stored in those farthest and dustiest corners of that place which were loaded with little secret adventures that we shared with our cousins. When summer was at its highest peak, its mud-covered walls remained cool and never even once made us realize that we actually were sweating a lot

I take a quick glance at my twelve year old daughter who is busy listening to music on her tablet phone loaded with raunchy lyrics and contemporary hip hop songs. Her fingers are constantly dwindling between apps and games. It hits me with a weigh question....is she also building a same treasure trove of memories of her childhood??? Well, I don't want to be so analytical now as the view outside my window keeps me totally hocked. At that very moment the car deck plays a beautiful gazal number of my most favorite singer and I am lost in time. But one thing is for sure…….the window definitely needs to be kept open.