Picture Tag

I have been tagged by Amu and here are the rules: - I have to pick a picture from my collection and post it here along with the story behind it.

I was checking out my pictures folder to choose a pic for this tag. I narrowed down on quite a few pictures where I had a story to tell – some pics of my little bro, some of my sisters, a few of my trips with friends and few with M. It was really difficult to choose one out of the lot. Anyways while I was still contemplating which one to put, I came across the one below and choose it instead.

The way I got this photo also has a small story to it. When we were kids, as was the norm at that time, we only had hard copies of photographs. And whenever my Mamas or Mausis came to visit us, they used to flick one or other picture from the album to take along with them. This was one such pic – it was taken by my Mausi who stays in Pune. A couple of months back, Gaurav, her eldest son and my bro, got this pic scanned and mailed it to me. I can’t tell you how delighted I was on seeing this photograph – felt pretty nostalgic and happy thinking of old times. So here is the picture:

I am sure you would have already guessed that this is a photo of mine with my sis and my handsome dad. Anyways I won’t tell here as to which one of two kids is me. :-) Since my friends are the only ones who read this blog, if you are reading this blog it means you have already recognized me. Now for the story behind the pic, here it goes..

This pic was taken during the “Rath Yatra” also known as the Chariot festival. It’s the most famous festival celebrated in Orissa (my home state). As a kid, I used to have a lot of fun during Rath Yatra. Our house is situated on the main road in my hometown and during Rath Yatra, the chariot carrying the deities passes in front of our house. On both sides of the main road, variety of vendors set up makeshift stalls where you get different kinds of toys – plastic, metal and wooden, kitchen sets, doctor sets, small gadgets, balloons, eatables et all. When I was small I used to love buying these things during Rath Yatra. In the evening at around 5ish, I and my sisters used to put on new dresses and get all decked up for an outing. My dad used to take us for a trip down the entire stretch of the main road. He bought us everything that we wanted to get. I especially used to love miniature kitchen sets, cute wooden furniture and bright, colorful plastic watches with cute designs & accessories. I and my sisters used to buy lot of such stuff. And invariably, we always used to buy helium filled air balloons. We used to love watching it float in air while we were happily going home holding papa's hand.... quite a mighty task considering that we were holding all of the toys and other such treasures in our little hands too. Once inside the house, we used to tie a long thread to its end and leave it free... The balloons used to go up and touch the ceiling. After playing around for hours, we used to release it outside and watch it go up, up and up.. :-) Those were some wonderful days!! This picture is of one such Rath Yatra celebration. Post shopping, my dad had taken me and my sis to a photo studio for capturing the day in print and here I am sharing it with you. :-)