Summer vacations are round a corner with a very small business of annual exams to care of. With IPL as distraction all school going readers and mainly their parents will have tough time to chose between studies and watching people like yusuf pathan going beserk with six of very ball faced. It is a difficult choice for me as well. Most of us have made plans for vacations. Some must have planned at exotic foreign or domestic locations. Some must have planned for beaten domestic/abroad tracks. Some will plan after series of entrance exams. But i am sure there will be a plan. But amidst this holiday galore and economic freedom to achieve that, have we lost upon an institution called as "Mamacha gaon". Till say about mid to late eighties (or say liberalization) most of my friends had single agenda to run across to relative's place: be it near or inside Pune or be it out of town. Famous songs have been written to depict that excitement. This stay at the relatives place was mostly for a week or in some cases month. Families of the past never lacked in numbers. We had cousins pouring in at same time and used to have gala time. My own uncle and grand parents used to stay in Dombivali. We children in Pune had great fascination for Mumbai and its suburbs. Reasons: Different life style, local trains, crowd, famous landmarks, food, and most importantly cricket (to play, watch on TV and discuss). Dombivali is a unique concoction: Open gutters, haphazard buildings, mosquitoes, sultry climate; seemingly not so good place. But due to people there, fun they used to have, it created a unique place. We have some great memories of my own 'Mama's Gaon'. We used to count our days before going to the place.Have we lost out on this institution? Some people may not agree. But many will I suppose. There can be many reasons. • Increase in Economic Power: Only way of bringing about change as expected during vacations was to travel to place where there was no need to spend on hotels and food. Thus public transport was only mode. With high disposable incomes as a result of economy this constraint was removed. With international and domestic airfares going south it became more fashionable to travel to holiday locations. Nuclear families: With lack in relations either resulting out of less siblings and more complicated intra family relations, it became difficult to justify 3-4 guests for whole long duration. • Advent of private transport and better roads : With larger number of families having access to Cars, traveling to mumbai /konkan/western maharashtra became matter of hrs , so need to stay was removed from any vacation plans. • Alternate modes of occupation: Vacation camps, interest groups eat a major pie of vacations. I see some kids getting busier in vacations than during academic year. It’s out of peer pressure or out of parental pressure for kids to excel in everything. • US migration: At least one member of a family has migrated to US . These people holiday mainly in December. Reasons can be numerous, but i am sure, like many institutions in Society, this institution is on decline. Its worthwhile to revive this. There are many wonderful memories there. Is anyone planning vacation to his or here Mamache gaon. Do comment. Author runs a blog http://nayakgiri.blogspot.com
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