1. Rise late. The only reason one should rise at all is that one can go out and play till it’s time to go to sleep again. Well, almost. Because Mom keeps intervening (shouting, yelling, torturing) with calls to have food (three times a day. Imagine!), to bathe, to sleep, and to do all those boring things you thought you didn’t have to do when school was out.

2. No homeworks. Mom might say the teacher has given writing work for the holidays, but everyone knows she’s bluffing. No teacher ever gives homework for Summer vacation except when you’re very old, like 15 years or something and are in 10th or 12th.

3. Indoor games means watching TV. When one is tired of football, cricket and badminton, and even bey blade (if that’s possible), one can indulge in indoor games. Like watching Pogo, Cartoon Network, Disney, and other channels whose names one cannot even spell, let alone read.

4. You miss your Best Friends. When the friends you like best have gone to their parents’ hometowns, you learn to get along with the ones you despised till last month. Well, one can’t always choose one’s companions, and has to make do with whoever and whatever lies around. Life’s gotta go on.

5. Visits and visitors: Not sure whether this is pro or con, but vacations surely mean a lot of people travelling hither and thither. As long as one gets to play what one likes to play (indoor and outdoor) it matters not where one is. When one is in places like Mumbai or Kerala, Mom’s calls for bathing matches or exceeds that of her calls for food. (See #6)

6. Bathe, bathe, and bathe. Though one dislikes interruptions while playing, sometimes the interruptions turn out to be games themselves. Especially in places like Mumbai and Kerala where one yearns to bathe in cold water (unlike Bangalore) once every ten minutes. One gets to stand under a tap in the garden or pour water on oneself from a hose pipe without fear of catching a cold or fever. Even better fun if one of those untimely rains decide to descend.

7. Eat junk food, when not eating Mom’s brain. If one eats the latter too much, Mom immediately thrusts a four-line or a square-line or a double-line book to one’s face. To pre-empt such a situation, just tell Mom, “I will have some snacks and watch TV while you finish your work,” and all is well.

8. There is no such thing as end-of-play-time. There are only pauses, before a fresh start.

9. Birthday parties are more fun. The number of kids at the parties will be less and one’s roles are more significant than during the rest of the year when the bigger kids sideline the smaller ones.

10. Sleep time. One can play and watch TV and resist sleep as long as humanly possible. ‘Humanly possible’ means till Mother collapses over her computer keyboard.