Nostalgia!

The other day, I had a chat with Meena, one of my good friends from Santhi Nagar and it made me take a trip down the memory lane to the good old days in Santhi Nagar. Santhi Nagar is a small residential colony in the heart of Aluva. It was wonderful living there! We moved to Santhi Nagar, when I was just 7. Since then, till my marriage, I was lucky to be a part of Santhi Nagar. Those were, for sure, the best days of my life, the days that were untouched by the worries of life.

I still remember the day when the Santhi Nagar Residential Association was founded by Mukundan Uncle, and since then it was a gala time for the children in the colony! Monthly Meetings, Onam Celebs, New Year Celebs and Annual Sports and other Competitions added color and joy to our lives! I feel these activities have helped us to come out of our shells and gain confidence and self sufficiency! Thanks to Paul Uncle and Lizamma Aunty, who used to lead us from front!

Out of all these, Onam Celebs has a special place in my heart, especially because of the Pookalam Competition! It was real fun, getting up before the break of the day and rushing to the houses around for flowers…. The two hours that we spend to decorate the floral carpet was not just 2- hour work, but was the result of a great deal of discussion and planning! Well, I must say that I used to thoroughly enjoy making the floral carpet just for the pure exhilaration of working together. Working with flowers, fixing the sand, letting the mind stray to get some creative combinations was an awesome experience. It was worthwhile for the enjoyment and energy it generated within the kids.

And……at the end of the day, when the results were to be announced….Oh! what a moment it was! The much-awaited moment! And……… the first prize of the Pookalam competition goes to…………………………soooo tensed we used to be when the winners were announced! Almost every year, we were really lucky to grab some prize! Winning wasn’t really important, but the fun it rendered! Hats off to Santhi Nagar!

Gone are those days, they will never be back again. Even now, we have pookalams and other competitions, but have never been able to find that kind of joy now, may be, that is something associated with childhood, the joy of being a child!

The Rockers of Santhi Nagar are scattered around the globe now, but most of them are in touch! To name a few – The Sisters with lovely hair, Meena and Veena, the Trio – Dhanya, Anto Saumya, the Big Brothers-Babu n Raju, the Intellectuals Teena and Balu, the Cute girls –Riya and Eliza Kochu, the Nightingale Usha, the Studious boys Sudil, Suman and Sumod, my bro Pappu, the violinist, my sis Syama and me. There are many more to name, Oooooopzzz! How could I forget the chatterbox, Nijil, the pretty Subhashree, Brinda, the lovely dancer, Radhika, the cutie, Binu, Jaya, Deepa, Sreenath alias Dilip, Nino, Neeraj , the list goes on…….

Even after all these years living outside the God’s own country, Santhi Nagar and its memories haven’t really gone out of my SYSTEM!

Nostalgia!