Back in the good ol’ school days when life was saner, I had a friend which made Saturday the best day of my week –my Young World. I would wait for it week long and spring out of bed early on Saturday mornings unable to contain my excitement.
Actually back then, I was a good studious girl, meaning no TV allowed for more than half an hour, no story books for more than an hour, no drawing, painting, arts stuff except for weekends, not even helping mama at kitchen stuff!. The only thing I could do was study ( that being the first priority ) , eat or sleep. No, I am not exaggerating.
And what I was allowed to read as extra-curricular stuff everyday was Dawn’s editorial. All those letters published, except sometimes one or two, used be utterly boring to me back then. So I never read them unless my nana forced me to :( While, Young World, my handsome prince, was all yum yum! It was something I was allowed to spend time with as much as I wanted.
It had almost all the things that could cheer a teenager up with a monotonous routine.
- The comic section –Archie, Heathcliff, Big Nate…lovely colours, what a break!
- ‘Did-you-Know?’ boxes –wildlife, geography, architecture and what not…I would read them out to my mom.
- The review – new movies, games, websites, storybooks… Just reading them used to be almost as good as experiencing them in real life.
- Mailbox –kids of my age talking to the editor about random stuff…
- Super Sis! – kids troubled with their love lives, kids troubled with their growing bodies, kids troubled with their academics…
- Cover story & Country Hopping –got interested in it quite after sometime…
- Pen Pals – people actually used to put their email addresses down in that section and introduce themselves a bit to make ‘pen pals’ with the readers. Later on, the section was discontinued with; you can guess why.
And there used to be so much more … beauty tips, interviews, event coverage, etc.
But I would give up all of the above for my two dearest sections: Story Time and Poets’ Corner. I would save them for the last. Once I used to be done clean-sweeping the whole issue I would go to my bed, curl up in a ball and read first the poems and then the stories to myself.
Last of all, I used to feel ecstatic when my entries used to get published! Just poems and letters to the editor… I just photographed my entries before the issues wear away. Here are some of them…
