down the memory lane...

A mail from a friend made me write this... memories... about a time when you were carefree...when you shared stories with the wind and trees...of times gone past to extreme horizons...i too have lot of that written down on the early pages of my life...(though, much of it has gone to infinite distance that i dont see it anymore)

yeah, i too hav that experience of washing a cow...but its loong bak...long bak to the point where my memories begin to fade...before joining school in kochi, i used to stay with my grand parents in my native place...its adoor, a southern town in kerala, some 100 kms frm kochi...then we had a cow there, (and couple of goats for a very brief period of time)...used to feed it, wash it, milk it...(well, my grandfather did all that..i just supervised!!!..) and the cow has even licked me on my face...not a pleasant feeling though, its tongue is ROUGH!!

lot of cats...but not a single one from our house...all the cats from around the place gathered whenever my grandma sat down for cutting the fish...with their kitten..and i had managed to befriend some of the cats...and play with them with a piece of salted fish tied on to a long thread..

then there was this huge mango tree in front of that house, where each soft breeze carried down with it lot of mangoes, when it was full ,which tasted like honey...and the sprint to collect them after every passing breeze...

we had a small path leading to my home from the road..and we, some four/five guys from the neighbourhood used to play all kinds of games from cricket to hockey!! ...yeah, on that narrow patch of land!.., and many a times the ball, after a boundary, landed right inside the well and it was another interesting work to collect the ball from the deep well using the bucket and rope..! and every game ended with us assembling in front of the well drinking the sweet cold water and washing, with each one pulling up water in turns..

durin my school vacation i went there every year and my grandfather used to tell me abt the old times when i went to a preschool hangin on his fingertips...tht i used to pester him with all kind of doubts...like..why that grass is growing there on a heap of mud ..n why is that bird sitting on a branch..n why that branch is growin in this direction n all....

its all a long time back...even now, i go there at times...n try to revisit the times when
life was simple and pure and fun...often i sit down on the steps and look back...that path wher we played seem smaller...i hate the game of cricket now...that mango tree is extinct...the cow shed is full of junk...there is no rope and pulley on that well...there are still cats around...but they run away the moment they see me...

...thanks faith, for making me walk down the memory lane.