Kids are useful. In a farming-dominated society, they are vital during periods when there is need for an extra pair of hands. So it is likely that school schedules, as they evolved, revolved around farming cycles. It is said that in the US, around the mid-19th century, it was decided that both urban and rural schools should have a similar academic year. This included, at harvest time, a long summer break.
The idea of such a gap in the year was probably brought to India by the British, who could not tolerate the heat. Going on a summer holiday is part of British popular culture too. Cliff Richard, incidentally born in Lucknow as Harry Roger Webb, was in a hit film called Summer Holiday (1963) and the eponymous song was a big hit even in India: “We’re all goin’ on a summer holiday / No more workin’ for a week or two. / Fun and laughter on our summer holiday / No more worries for me or you.”
Going on a summer holiday is part of the collective consciousness of any Indian over the age of 40. It was the time when schools closed and parents packed their children off to distant towns or villages, to spend time with grandparents or aunts. I remember spending time in Kerala and Mysuru as a child. For many of us, these months were spent taking a dip in the village pond, catching lizards, spending time at the beach or riverfront. If there was a zoo or a museum, that became a part of every week’s agenda. A temple visit was a must, especially to savour the different prasads.
In his book, Journey to the Hills and other Stories, my friend Divyaroop Bhatnagar lovingly describes his family’s annual summer train journey from Kanpur to the hills. Preparation took weeks, as the family packed huge suitcases; elaborate foods were cooked in large quantities, to be consumed during the train ride and later.
To those who have not experienced all this I would recommend time with the classic TV series Malgudi Days (originally released in the 1980s; now on Voot). Our summer breaks were slow living, on slow speed.
No wonder confectionery manufacturers avoided summer launches for new products, a lesson that I learnt while working on campaign for a large candy brand. Asked if we should launch a new candy in this season, I was told by the client that it was the worst time for any new product activity. Children need to be communicated with when they are able to speak or boast to their friends. The best time is when schools are open. Not when they are lazing about in a pool or lounging with a comic book.
Are summer holidays still as important as they were a few decades ago? Have they all but vanished? What has driven them out?
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There have been significant changes in the demographics of middle- and upper-middle-class families. For one thing, they have, as a rule, become smaller. My generation had cousins by the dozen, generally living somewhere in India. Today’s small families are sprinkled around the world, which means fewer places to go to in the long break.
There was a time when urban children’s grandparents almost always lived in smaller towns or rural areas. In R Gopalakrishnan’s book, A Comma In A Sentence: Extraordinary Change In An Ordinary Family Over Six Generations, he describes how his family moved from being one village to being spread across one town, then one district, one state, one country; and is now spread across the world. This is a phenomenon common today across the middle classes. Some villages have emptied out.
Meanwhile, over the past three decades, we have seen the rise of the “tiger parent” and “helicopter parent”. They want their children to excel at all activities — academics, hobbies, languages, art. The long vacation is used to get them better prepared for the year ahead. Coaching for entrance exams, which used to be the norm around Class 10, are now common from Class 7 on. Coaching classes have filled the gap that used to be filled by a leisurely vacation.
Another new phenomenon sweeping urban India is the summer camp. Parents are asked to send their children to these camps to learn new skills such as rock climbing and rope climbing, hobbies that are often pursued indoors or in designated zones as India’s cities become more densely populated, less green, and open spaces harder to access.
The rise of the working couple, especially in upper-middle-class homes, has changed things too. In the past, the mother would take the children to her parents’ or in-laws’ home in the village. The father would join them for a week or two. Neither parent can now spare two entire months away from work.
Increased affluence and social media have had a perverse effect on those slow summer breaks. Parents want to give their kids a quick tour of the world. So instead of two months in a village it is now 10 days on a trip to a foreign country or an exotic location in India. I am told that, at least in the elite schools, there is a constant bragging war among children over where they spent their break. The mandatory back-to-school English assignment — write an essay titled “What I did during my summer holidays” — has changed from a monochromatic picture of village life in India to 70-mm Technicolor world tours!
There is another interesting phenomenon sweeping cities such as Delhi and Mumbai. If the boss is off in Europe with the family, what is the driver to do? Many drivers now get two or three weeks off each year, and use that time to take their families back to their village. What we saw as the ideal summer holiday still exists; it has just moved from the middle-class to lower rungs on the socio-economic scale.
Meanwhile, the winter vacation is on the rise among the urban wealthy. This is when family members from Europe and the US visit. The Chennai Carnatic music season has become a big attraction for visiting NRIs. Goa, Kerala and even Tirupati see extraordinary traffic from visiting family members. Will the phenomenon of winter holidays take hold, one wonders.
Summer holidays as we used to experience in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s are gone. The idea of a slow, long, leisurely break just does not sit well with new generations, who are looking for instant gratification. Attention spans are shortening. Time is at a premium. Revenge shopping and revenge tourism have gained momentum, since the pandemic eased. Most vitally, the world goes with you, in your palm, wherever you are. As a result of all this, “experiences”, of the real and virtual kind, have taken hold.
I wonder how many schoolchildren today even know of a song called Summer Holiday.
(Ambi Parameswaran is a bestselling author of 11 books and an independent brand coach)
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