Down memory lane…

Those were the days when these names were not yet TV stars, just ordinary folk like you and me. Natasha Havewala takes some telly stars down memory lane to try and retrieve their favourite childhood memories….

"All my favourite childhood memories are associated with the rains," says vivacious Shraddha Nigam. "I have these vivid memories of playing in the rains when I was around seven years old. Whenever there would be a heavy downpour, our school would declare a holiday, but my friend Kriti and I would go to school and play in the mud in the playground. We would jump, splash mud, dance in the puddles and make paper boats to sail in the streams. Our school had these badaam trees, and we would pluck the fruit and eat. And on our way back we would gorge on vada pavs and later get a sore throat! Those were the times I can never forget."

"Last year, Kriti and I went to Amby Valley, Lonavala. The weather was just stunning…. However, this year I haven't had the chance to go anywhere due to my hectic schedule with Dekho magar pyaar se but I might visit my friend Sanjeet Bedi's farmhouse at Wadi. I'm planning to freak out and get drenched in the rain," she says mischievously.

Rains definitely seem to be the flavour of sweet memories. For immaculate Narayani Shastri, riding bicycles during the rains is an affair to remember. "During the rains, my sisters and I would get up at five am and go cycling from Colaba to Bandstand. During the monsoon, the entire stretch would be filled with water and after reaching there we would play in the pools. We had a ball!" she recollects.

Bubbly Kulraj Kaur remembers the times when she played soccer with her guy friends in the mud and got bruises all over. "Jumping on them, pushing them, and defeating them are fond memories that I cannot forget," she laughs.

But one incident that she loves to describe as she takes us through her memory lane is when she was in sixth standard. "My parents had gone for a party and my sister and I were alone at home. So we decided to dress up like our parents. My sister dressed up like dad. She wore his pyjamas that obviously were very loose and as my dad ties a turban, she took one of moms' chunnis and tied it around her head. I dressed like mom, wearing her salwar kameez and chunni. We put loud bhangra music on and started dancing. Just then, my parents entered and saw us jumping on the sofa. To add to the fun, we started imitating them. They just enjoyed it! It's an incident that I really cannot forget," she says.

If Kulraj made her parents freak out by dressing like them, handsome hunk Gaurav Chopra attracted attention by making his own home at the age of five. "This was when we shifted to our new bungalow in Delhi and there was a ghar pravesh function. Once the puja got over, my dad took all his friends around, showing the home and mom was busy with the relatives. I felt completely left out, so I went to the lawn and started making my own mud house. Suddenly I became the centre of attention! I told everybody I was making my own house and would show everyone once it was ready. Hearing this, my mom hugged me. It's a wonderful memory I cherish. I even have a picture of me sitting in the mud looking at the camera with the house near me. It's one of my first memories and it's really close to my heart."