Mangoes, Sunflowers, Sweet Lassi, Peaches, board games, cousins and lots of holiday

homework.
What do these words remind you of?
Good evening fellow Toastmaster and guests.
Summers brought with them with the favorite part of school life, summer vacations!
Remember how the last day before summer vacation was the happiest day of the year! We
had plans of playing endlessly with friends, we had a trip planned to our grandmothers’
house.
But this changed in college, summer began with semester exams. Oh damnn. Trying to find a
spot in the jam-packed library just to sit in the AC, giving final exams on a hot May afternoon
with the fan meekly spinning in some corner. But after all this turmoil, came the semester
end-break. Oh wow! But instead of those mangoes, sunflowers, sweet lassi, peaches and
board games it was unpaid internship at your brother’s office to “learn” and work in an
office environment. And then ofcourse, the concept of summer vacations just sublimed into
thin air when office life actually began.
And those carefree summer vacation just got packed in one of those memory boxes in our
back of our minds. Don’t you miss those days? The waking up late, eating mangoes and
watching your favorite cartoons, afternoon naps and cool lemonade and roohfaza after
playing outside in the evening. And obviously that holiday homework done in the last few
days. My holiday homework was done in such a rush that the entire house was working on it
like workers on a production line one day before school reopened.
What was the point of those projects anyway? Creating a home-made skin friendly insect
repellent, or going on your walk with your grandfather in a park and writing about the birds
and animals you spotted? To grade us on them? Of course. To keep us busy? That too. But
more importantly to instill in us creativity, compassion and innovation. To realize that life is
beyond the routine of schoolwork and homework. Life is about always flexing your brain
muscles, finding new things while doing simple activities like a walk in the park and
innovating solutions for day-to-day life problems. What was the point of those summer
camps or the hobby classes we joined in vacations? To learn a skill beyond the daily grind, to
have some unique and fun me-time.
We left all this behind when we started working, getting lost in project deadlines, long
commute hours and house chores. Is a summer vacation really necessary for us to innovate
or to learn a new skill or spend time with our grandparents or parents? I think summer
vacation excitement evolved into weekend excitement but the activities were limited to
Netflix and ordering out. We forgot the creativity, compassion and innovation.
So, lets begin this meeting while reigniting the essence of those summer vacations.
Our summery May meeting is divided into 3 sections, the prepared speech section with 4
articulate speakers, the fun and spontaneous table topics section open to guest and TMs
alike.. and the last section is the most important part for a toastmasters meeting, the
evaluation section. With this I hand over the stage our very own TM … as the GE.
I spent a part of my early childhood in Shimla. And we didn’t exactly have those summer
vacations. Instead after final exams ending in Dec, school reopened in March. Well not
exactly summers, but well a vacation again to learn and chill. We visited my cousins, my
grandmother enrolled me into a dance class, tried to teach me knitting. So basically, making
out the best of whatever time off we are given
This pandemic and stay at home is like that untimely summer vacation. Try to keep up the
creativity, compassion and innovation. Spend time with your loved ones, innovate and help
them, learn to cook from your mother, learn how to organize important papers and finances
from your dad, share your life with them, reconnect with your old hobby you left, or learn a
new skill just for fun. But Keep flexing your brain muscles. Because we may not get our
school summer vacations back unless time travel becomes a real thing!