Your parents left you in the house alone write a letter to your friend telling her what you did
Answers
I spent a considerable amount of my childhood at home alone. The story goes that my school started at 7 AM and it got over by 12:15 PM. This meant that my parents had to put me on the bus by 6 AM which also meant that they should be up by 5 AM. My mother thought it was too much of a bother for five hours of school which was, in her opinion, not teaching me anything. I bunked school at least 3 days a week. My school was okay with my erratic attendance because my grades were always great and I fell sick so often, that it became a good enough reason not to go to school. Both my parents worked and being a single kid, I pretty much spent all my time at home.
This was pre-internet and pre-exciting TV channels. We had cable TV (which was introduced only in late 90's) but I somehow I never liked cartoons (I didn't understand the accent in which the characters talked ). My parents were voracious readers and read quite a bit in Tamil. No one was really interested in watching TV in my house and therefore, for the lack of better things to do, I started reading, crazily. My school had a wonderful library and I checked out tons of books every week whenever I went. I wheedled the librarian into giving me more books than it was normally allowed.
Madurai, where I am from, is not a big place. There weren't too many people who read, let alone children's books written by arcane authors. Only my grandfather read English books in the circle of people I knew . He harped on the classics of his times and snorted derisively at my taste. Due the distinct lack of a recommendation mechanism, I discovered all the books that I loved by myself and somehow that helped me try out a lot of things before I started appreciating good writing. It was only after the Internet came about, I discovered how popular Enid Blyton, Tintin, P.G.Wodehouse and my other favorite authors were among others who liked reading and I felt a strange kinship with the world.
When the supply was low, I also started sneaking Tamil novels that my parents read though they distinctly disapproved of me reading their stuff. They always lived in the morbid fear of my being "corrupted" by the "adult" themes that writers like Sujata "slipped into" their novels. Oh well, the things that they didn't know.