Winter is "chillilng"... pun intended

The weather is just like back home when winter started. Miss those winter days of, the steaming cup of hot tea which I could have both when mummy made and when bua made. The days of endless. meaningless walks on canal road, when every few steps led to a meeting with another friend. The days when we were free to create all that laughter and ruckus on the road, the way Bulli would cry out the honourable salutation of "Bhai ko", God alone knows what that meant but that was our way of saying rather shouting a powerful hello.
I remember the woolen cap that mummy wanted me to wear and I would'nt. And to top it Kamal would come wearing one, showing off as an example. I remember the occasional momos and soup.
The days of miscalls. When we wanted to be independent. When we took tutions to earn and get that sense of independence. The days when we earned and spent without a thought, for it was for spending that we earned. Yet we saved. Those were the days when Kamal would miscall me when leaving from his place and I would know that it's time to be ready for the evening stroll which took us many kilometers.
Those winter days of M.Sc. when the college would be deserted except for us Physics students. The endless daily rounds of college with Sudhir, to check on one thing or other. The days when everything was so cold and lazy that nothing could happen, but still we went out braving the cold to check on our exams?
And the close of winter, still too chilling, would bring the exams.
I remember the winter days when we sat on the wall of my house (well Kamal might remember) during the final year exams. Kamal, Kalpana and me, in that harsh cold for no reason at all...
Then were the winter days spent in Nainital, working on being a Physicist. The days that chilled the bones. The days when I could see the bus leaving the bus stand, down below as I left the college. The inhuman insane and dangerous attempt to catch it, running down the steep mountain slope in futile hope, at times accompanied by Jaya, disregarding the possibility of a slip and fall down into the valley. The wait at the bus stand for the next bus, in that spine chilling sub zero wind. The December night when Sanjay and I rode on his scooter (Rampyari :P) after the Symposium and the way we froze. The daily Tea break with Mishra sir, to the hill top tea shop from where we could watch the expansive beauty of whole Nainital. The winter days when it got dark soon and I would walk from DSB to the bus stand though I was told that I shouldn't as there were few leopard attacks and it was not safe. But who cared then. The days of daily travel to and from Nainital, and the friends I made on Bus who were years older to me but enthusiastic nonetheless. The idea of antakshari one winter day, and the way those old men sang. Felt like we were coming back from some picnic instead of their returning from their jobs and me from the college.
These chilling winters have always been chilling in more ways than one. Am looking forward to another one, after four years of "no winter" weather of Pune.
But there are no miscalls when we have enough to call each other but we don't, no scooters to roam late at night in cold, no running down the slopes in complete carelessness, no more momos, no more mushrooming friends, no more tea at every hour (Sorry Starbucks, you're good but not that good as my Mom's tea, neither as good as the tapri in Nainital).
Why can't we play today? Why can't we stay that way?