I miss my childhood
I miss my tree-bed
I miss my palm tree shed
I miss decorating my doorways red
I miss hanging to banyan tree tread
I miss playing in the streets
Without any fear of vehicles
Without any fear of kidnappings
Without any fear of borewells
Without any fear of modern day’s malice
I miss my school days
Pledging in the big compounds
Playing in the intervals
Swarming around the ice-cream cart
Licking it till the stick comes out
I miss my evening tuitions
Where looking at the book only when the teacher gazes
Fully immersed in overtures in their absence
I miss trying to be a best student
In my teacher’s eyes
Though occasional cane beating and kneeling down were unavoidable
I miss our student groups
Frequently changing the sides
Not speaking to each other for some days
Making it a spicy news for all others
I miss tailing after my Mother
When she was colloquing with aunties
Tailing after Daddy when he goes up to the snack-bunk
Loitering around him to get a five Pisa coin
And running to get five golden brown finger rolls to eat
I miss listening to grandparents bed time Stories
I miss their gifts for festivals
I miss eating tamarind lolly-pop
I miss eating roasted onion from the burnt coal chips
I miss eating red pickel rice mixed with Ghee
I missed eating home made snacks
Secretly picking from the steel containers
Day-long until it is emptied
I miss going out into fields
On the day of Ganesh chaturthi
collecting leaves and flowers for Puja
And taking sundry items to the teachers
Returning with their blessings
I miss mutual cheek-slapping with my friends when my teacher tests us over Mathematical tables
I miss every sweet memory of my generation
Where the transition took so fast
We can’t get back at any cost
As we entered into an age that is running fast
And we should run along with it
Whether we like it or not
Though we can enjoy postmodern day’s comforts too
A glance into our childhood
A trans into the once our world
© Anjana Lahuri@2020
