Vacation time has always been something we’ve looked forward to as kids. While the shorter vacations of Dussehra and Christmas meant solid weeklong travel with the family to beautiful destinations across the country and the world, summer holidays meant time to hook up with grandparents for a month of masti. It was the time when my sister, cousins and I could raid the attic for hidden treasures and mom’s art box to recreate art.

   There are some artsy memories that are vague and some vivid. One was a wax art that we had learnt in school. We lit up candles of different colours and held them horizontally over a bowl of water. Wax dripped off these candles and immediately cooled into tiny waxy drops of different colours in the water. We then scooped them up, dried them and pasted them on chart paper to create greeting cards that we sent out during the series of festivals that followed. We ensured that every relative – near and far,....