Transitory Reflections

You know, in this world, time flits past so soon that you rarely get the time to pause and breathe. You get stuck in the race and you forget all the milestones you passed and the things you left behind. You run looking hard ahead, you focus only on the destination, but the journey is forgotten, the roads are left behind, mere images to serve as fragments of memories from the past.

Then one day, suddenly you end up reminiscing, because of someone or something around you that made a memory distinctly livid, that made the past come alive and dance in front of you. That has happened more often than once. When all you can think of is how it used to be.

Childhood is an interesting thing. It is that time of life when you are unguarded, when you can be yourself and say everything you want to without being afraid of judgmental people hovering around you who are waiting to character assassinate you and your existence.

Childhood images of you stand alive in the hearts of those that are dear. My uncle still remembers the first sight he had of me as i came rocketing down a slope on my friend's cycle headed straight to is car and braked just in time. The excitement, the mad rush of adrenaline, the laughs. I still remember it too. I also remember the shocking pink frilly frock i had on. I was a terror even then, no wonder my uncle remembers it so clearly. A shocking pink thunderbolt of lightning on a cycle headed straight at your car, when you are actually planning to propose a marriage to someone you love and this thunderbolt actually happens to be a relative that too a closely related one. Someone in all probability who is going to be a part of the new life you are beginning. Love you Roy Mama ;)

So coming back to childhood and cycles and bike rides... When you relive these things all of a sudden out of the blue, you realize how old you have grown. I just did all the mad child like antics on Saturday and i feel sooo good.

Went to a birthday party at ma's friends place. Her girls are 13 and 9 and they are a riot, a little crazy but a riot. I started with sliding down the banisters and the jumping 7 stairs at a go from landing to landing. Then went on to play aeroplane hopscotch on the road with the vehicles dodging us. Then it was around ten when we took the cycle out. Her Miss India Lavender Cycle. There were two other kids as well. So i took the cycle and i took off. The moon was at its gibbous best. There was a halo of clouds around it, a thin wisp but a pretty one, the stars peeking out, blinking and twinkling... Like holding a conversation, as if they have some secrets to whisper into your ears. The cycle ride was the best of the lot, in the moonlight, taking the kids on doubles. Sweeping down a slope, walking it up again. It was ten thirty when ma finally managed to tear me away from the cycle.

Everyone there thought i was in school and i am not wondering why. I was told i will never be forgotten. I had a ball. Went home, sat on the tank on the terrace, it was freezing cold and i was in my shorts and tee. The moon overhead, the stars laughing, the lights of the city blinking in the darkness, the wind rustling in the trees, ticking, teasing. I sat wrapped in the moment, of sheer joy, of childhood thoughts, of the beauty of the night, of the soothing sounds of the wind, of another world so far, yet so near...