We have an internal social networking tool at work. A parent started a thread asking about camps and other summer activities for kids. One of my co-workers said something like below (as a joke): "Put them in the backyard in the morning. Lock the door. Put out sandwiches at noon. Hose them down in the evening with your garden hose".. That turned into people mentioning free range kids . Of course, in America there's some sophisticated sounding terminology for everything, but I would have called this "a typical childhood in India". This got me reminiscing about my childhood summer vacations growing up in Hosur , in the 80s. The "hose them down with the garden hose" part wasn't too far from some part of my summer experience between the age of 7 to 12. Summer vacation started around mid April. My grandparents lived with us, and me and my sister couldn't wait for summer to start each year. The youngest of our cousins R lived in town. My oth