REALisation: Past Perfect, Present Continuous(ly busy), Future Tense

Noticing half-a-dozen strands of silver hair a while ago and the thought of writing on the lines of "When I was young...," would have ideally made me skip this subject. But when I mentally time-travelled into the late eighties, I realised I was lucky to be born much before this era of online chats, online gaming, escalators and treadmills. Not that I am against the online revolution... it helps me earn my bread, butter, jam and mayo, but I realised that back then (suddenly I feel as if I am aging at the speed of light!) childhood was just perfect!

PAST PERFECT
I used to write real letters (I must specify - hand-written ones!) to my nana/nani, aunts-uncles, cousins and my friend Ranjeeta.
The letters to the elders would always start like:
"Pyaari Maasi, Namaste! Aap kaisi ho, ghar par sab kaise hain..."
And the ones to Ranjeeta would go like this:
Dear Ranjeeta, how are you? You know what happened the other day.."

We still retain some of those blue inland letters and yellow envelopes with lots of stamps. Holding and reading them once in a while is an indescribable experience!

Jab main chhoti bacchi thi...


Jab main chhoti bacchi thi
Kahaan sharaarat karti thi ;)


Chidiya awaaz lagaati thi
Aur main jaag jaati thi