Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Memory of a day in my village


Its five in the morning and the whole village is lightened up by the milky white light of the dawn. The rhythmic sound of birds and the silent noise of the river all come to your ear slowly getting louder with every passing seconds as you wearily open your eyes and sense the chill. You wonder is it really summer? You smile at yourself and make yourself cozy under the blanket for few more minutes but the struggle between the laziness and the enthusiasm to explore the morning is finally taken over by the later. You quickly wake up. Rush to wake up your siblings, cousins, sometimes friends.
You have your own plans for the morning. Now its 5:30 the cow boy is guiding the cow herd with that dusty wind you don't close your face you take a deep breath as if the dust in the wind is panacea. This can happen only here. All the gang moves to finish up brushing and cleaning. What next is it food, no something else is yet more important, lets run! run to the field all along side the river. The sun has not yet come out. But you are running down the lane restlessly as if the day will die the next moment. The chill of AC is defeated, the clarity of Dolby Digital sound is defeated, the the whole era is defeated by this small pack of scattered things in the hour. You love each second. Running around, chasing the snakes, picking the snails. The stint halts on the river, you jump in and follow the classical strategies, what? Lets catch fish! You prepare your own temporary yet contemporary reservoir for the fishes. This optimism is obvious. The fishing session is done time to get home. Walk all the way discussing the day plan. Disclosing the fantasies as facts. Telling stories as history! Making ghost the primary resident of any randomly picked old looking tree. "Uss pipal ke pedh mein bhoot hai. Use
kilon se bandha gaya hai... "
Life never stops and imaginations take shape. Go home have fresh diary milk, have fresh steaming break fast! Rush again. Its time for gadgets. after all you have to prepare dhanush to fight snakes. with the giggles and zig the dusk come in. It steps in when you are still struggling under the "Aam ka pedh or jaamun ka pedh" You get few and you are more than happy! Ecstatic you return back staring at the swift and agile movement of the cow boy guiding the herd back. The light from "Saanj dia and sound from puja ghanti" resonates from all the souring. You tell the prayers with the gang, brothers friends sitting on the porch of the temple you wonder is there any secrete behind this temple. Its always a weird feeling everything in a village seems to carry a story with it. Solving the dilemma you give direction to thoughts, its time you go to grand father, "Ghost stories" the most demanded at that time. You sleep on the porch snugged to each other no sooner the story finishes. A jerk and a sound wakes you up. The supper is ready. Its you all favorite. Thats favorite not more because you really like it but because you only get then when you come here. A day has passed. First time you realize a days passes at light speed. You sleep on the bed just desperately waiting for the next dawn. Oh sun why go down even today? Every day you set off. Can't you just wait for a single day giving some more time to run under you heat, to be breathless, sweat running down my cheek all the day long? The scent of aam bagan, the speed of snakes, the sound of birds and those old three I get courage to go only when you are there on top. Oh sun ca't you just wait! and you sleep. The next morning comes and goes.
All remains with you for the eternal time is the scent of soil, the care free runs, the never ending fun, the soothing wind, the cow shed, the dog running after you, the life that used to be blue! All remains is the memory and the satisfactory sigh you breath out!
And you end up writing all these like I am doing in a 2nd floor apartment of a cosmopolitan city on the bed cursing the laptop and avoiding the snoozes. Hello! Get back!

Truly
Abinash

2 comments:

--xh-- said...

beautiful.. write more like this da.. awsome sketch of a morning...

abinash said...

--xh-- : Thanks. :) Yeah will try to convert my nostalgia into words.