Mountains and my childhood association

“Come on wake up lets go for trekking, later we have to study math”, a dialogue my daddy use to tell me on Sunday morning. From the age of four, Daddy and me lived in our small world where mom left us being my angel for life. “Who gets up early at 7 on Sunday?”, I use to shout at him in a sleepy voice.

With shorts and t-shirts and sports shoes tied tight we jog up to the base and then climb the hills. The place where we lived Mulund is close to nature with huge lush green Yogi Hills mountains in front of us. Mountains has many innumerable memories attached with me.

The Yogi Hills was divided into three levels; the first part being the basic level and user friendly as it was easy to climb. It had ground surface where people use to exercise and perform yoga. The second and the third level were slightly difficult as it was dense and steep. The hills joint the Sanjay Gandhi National park on the other side of the mountain.

During childhood my first drawing happened to be green mountains and black birds. I use to question my daddy as why other students coloured the mountains brown and not green. He use to love my innocent questions and answer me patiently.

Hills were the perfect hangout place for any guest visiting us as they could never experience it. There were many morning and evening walkers with young, old people going for walks and treks. “Ha ha ha ha, Ha ha ha ha”, group of laughing club of senior citizens use to laugh on the hills. Their voice could be heard till home.

Summer holidays were like camping on the hills. All the friends in the building use to go for early morning trek carrying bhel, banana chips and a bottle of orange flavoured Rasna. Though it use to be our camping session we gave hard time to our parents to prepare these breakfast early in the morning. Sometimes we use to carry sandwich materials and make our breakfast there with some getting green chutney, some the bread and the salad and the chocolate milkshake use to top the list. Amma use to make chocolate milkshake as it was easy to make and we all use to relish it.

With many buildings coming up near the hills and national park joint to it many cases of wild animals attacking people came up who went for trekking going especially the leopards. We had monkeys entering our building from the mountains.

The hills during rains and winter are a view to watch. Greenery mountains filled with white moving fog some times running rains giving a signal of the rain about to come. ‘Zooo zoooo’ scary noise of the wind and rain together from the close windows gave our guest chilly nights fearing something suspicious.

Summers had an altogether different look of the hills. Due to the heat some part of the the mountain use to catch fire due to the friction of hot wind and the grass. The sight use to be like the small golden crowns in different places.

Mornings in Mulund are the best because of the mountains and the fresh air which was soothing.

Today also when I visit home it my favourite pass time to simply sit of the window panes with my cup of chai and having a view of the hills which brings back my childhood memories.