1. Every time it rained, you as the boy in the house would be made to run to the terrace and fix the TV antenna. You stood there on the terrace ledge twisting and turning the rusted antenna while your family members kept an eye on the television and shouted from the balcony, “Aa gaya!” “Chala gaya!” And sometimes, just to spite you they would keep shouting “Nahi aya” while happily watching the movie.
2. Toothpaste was squeezed till the tube looked as if a road roller had run on it. You probably remember calling out to mom from the bathroom asking for a new toothpaste tube, and the response was a point blank no. Who needed gyming when you had to direct all your muscle strength into flattening an already empty tube and suck the life out it?
3. At least once in your life, you’ve been thrashed with a chappal. While some families follow the ‘You don’t hit a girl with chappals’ belief to the core, there’s no such rule when it comes to boys. Also called “chittar”, chappals have been deployed to set naughty boys right since forever.
4. School uniforms were always one size bigger for you. Why spend on a new one every year when you could just buy an oversized one that’d last for a few years? Our parents didn’t mind if we roamed around looking like Peter Pan wearing Hulk’s pants.
5. Whenever your mother ran out of something in the kitchen, you were summoned and ordered to run and buy that packet of oil or besan or tea from the local grocer. And just when you came back panting and dripping sweat, your sister would say, “Arre, rose water bhi laana tha.”
6. You and your siblings attacked the sweets as soon as the guest left. This one was a classic and probably still happens. The choicest of snacks would be served when guests came over, the ones you weren’t allowed to touch on a daily basis. You would eye the delicacies all the while the guests sat, and even politely refuse when they offered you some. But the minute they left, it was Sparta. You would break loose on the plates and wipe them clean in no time. It was much embarrassing when the doorbell rang and the same guest came back because he had forgotten something.
7. Buying a gift for your crush or taking her out on a date to the newly opened McDonald’s required weeks of planning. You saved up on your pocket money, ran errands for mom, flattered your dad.
8. If you had a sister, you’d agree to the fact that almost all the gifts given by friends and relatives were for her. Guests bought either sweets or gifts meant for your sister or mother. Even that sole distant relative from abroad got gifts that couldn’t be used by you. It was always easier for them to buy gifts for your sister – clothes, jewellery, fancy bags – blame it on the variety of women’s products.
9. Whether or not you had a car in the house, it was always a two-wheeler to drop you to school when you missed the school bus. And more often than not, you and your sibling would squeeze in on the backseat and hold tight. Years later, you found yourself on that same scooter practising your driving skills.
10. There was always a master polythene bag in which other smaller polythene bags were carefully stuffed by your mother. Whether it be the transparent kind from the sabziwala or glossy fancy bags from retails shops, all kinds of polythene bags were carefully preserved. Every house had (or still has) a large polythene bag housing all the other polythenes. And you needed special permission to use the glossy ones.
11. Old bottles were never thrown away. Empty oil or shampoo bottles were gold. After we had used the product (till the very last drop of it), the bottles were thoroughly washed, dried in the sun, and re-filled with another liquid. If there was no immediate use, they were stocked for later. The amount of plastic we saved could have built an entire parachute!
12. There is no kid who has escaped this. If you had elder siblings or elder cousins, you invariably ended up wearing their hand-me-downs. Sometimes they were stylish, at all other times they were grossly unfashionable, especially if they had been carefully preserved for years waiting for you to grow up to fit into them.
13. Attending weddings was a carefully planned mission. As soon as you entered the wedding venue, all family members and relatives would spread in different directions hogging each stall, and sneakily inform each other which delicacy was worth wasting time on and which was not. Every two minutes, a mami or chachi would come whisper in your ear, “Paneer tikka bohot achcha hai”, “Aloo tikki baasi hai.” Not to mention you didn’t eat lunch that day.
14. When the elastic bands of your socks lost their elasticity, you didn’t buy new ones. You hoisted them up with rubber bands. Yes, and in the afternoon when you got home, you had red ring marks around your legs
My opinions..... Avi bairagi
You said here, the boys problems of middle class family. It's obviously heart touching matter. We all want to solve the problem😊