Imagine if we had a time machine… and we
could go back to that one happy, really happy period of our lives.That would be
an incredible experience.
Though
not in reality but in imagination… I invite you all to take a ride with
me..through my memory lanes..to the most cherished period of my life..my
childhood.
Having a huge family has one big advantage…..cousins…!!!
And I have not 2 not 4 not 6 but 14 cousins. I am the 8th born. My
most vivid and precious memories are those of summer vacations with my cousins…my
buddies.
My big family had a big house to match… a
home to 30 members besides 10 servants and not to mention 8 pets,cows and dogs.
I remember at one point in time we had two pairs of Rabits too. Across the
front of our house was the beautifully manicured lawn that boasted a variety of
fragrant flowers, delicatae creepers and colourful crotons.
To top it all we children had
painstakingly converted an expansive open area adjacent to the kitchen garden
into our play field, given our love for Cricket and Badminton.
Never having to go beyond the high walls for any
kind of sport I now believe we could have easily registered the place as a
small township..!!!
Although we cousins were quite proud of
our playfield but there was one place more special than that… our backyard
Orchard.
Come
summers,
and we would be squealing with excitement because now
we could play , every single day ,to our heart’s content in the orchard…
Summers of north India are known for long lazy
afternoons, strong hot winds called Loo— the name quite amusing in English. And
a daily ritual of afternoon siesta for our elders. That is when, we kids would
venture into the long tapering gallery of the house leading to the backyard.
I can still feel the peeling flakes of
the rusted iron gate which would creak
open into greens of all imaginable shades…
Fenced with the thorny bushes of
delicious Indian pink berries called Carandas on one side and lined with profuse
sweet lime bushes on the other, our orchard would welcome us into its soft
green bed and lush green trees….As if it kept waiting for us all the year
round…!!
Once in the orchard, we the
older kids would run and climb on our favourite trees. We were all tree
climbers be it a mango tree, or a fragile guava tree or the tall Java plum
tree… my favourite was the magnificent
mulberry…
While we would be busy plucking the mouth
watering fruits, my younger cousins would go rushing towards the tyre swing
hanging down the massive Banyan tree.
Sometime we were the birds perched on the
tree tops… singing …and sometimes we were like Monkeys… swinging on the branches..making
faces at each other…being the nautiest of the naughty.
Led by our Leader, my eldest brother, our
ideal, we would all go searching for honey combs, or the ant hills and stare at
them for the longest time.
Amidst this fun, frolick and laughter ,our
most delightful activity was building
a tree house atop our gigantic neem tree. And we were innocent enough to dream
we would live there forever.
Racing to the finish or jumping in the
puddle, trotting on narrow boundary wall or foraging for bird nests, we were
never tired of being in the orchard.
We
just hated being called inside the house when the sun would set at the horizon,
the dusk would slowly creep into our orchard and we would have to say bye bye
to our twilight games for that day.
That place even today, when I am
thousands of miles away, it triggers a surge of emotions in me…I can still
taste the tangy lemons and carandas in my mouth…I can still hear the tweet of
the birds and buzz of the bees…
That place taught us to be full of life
and zest… That Place taught us to seek the unknown and enjoy the adventure.
Above all it bonded us for life as it
gave us memories we all most cherish.
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