Thursday, 10 January 2019

Revisiting Childhood


Many miles down the road, a bullock cart used to wait for me. I would elope away from my home everyday evading the sights of my parents. I don’t know who it was sitting on the other end of the cart. He would take me through the middle of green pastures where I would discover a world closer to my heart.

Women with hunched knees would pluck the crops – they would sit for hours under the sun enduring the heat embracing the inclement weather. Men would distribute fertilizers on the field – a religious practice for them which would never cover their mind with the veil of boredom; perhaps this helped them to feed themselves and their families. Children would splash water and play with the mud, making idols, statues, homes and dams – their innocence so fragile that it was meant to be vulnerable at their own hands.

My eyes would then shift to the greens that would line the horizons of our village. The sun would play peek-a-boo with me percolating through the coconut trees as I would watch them unperturbed from the cart. They have stood there from time immemorial as a witness to the numerous carts that pass each day carrying a nature lover like me.

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