I remember those sunny afternoons of my childhood. Surprisingly, they are still healthy in my mind and they keep knocking on the door often. I remember the house, the room, the wooden windows, the clear blue sky, and the sunshine outside. When I think of those sunny afternoons today, I can feel the richness of the sunshine outside the window and it makes me feel happy and bright even now.
I remember spending lazy, feel-good, bright afternoons reading books, magazines, Indrajal comics, Amar Chitra Katha (mostly Bengali), doing sketches, or roaming outside among the trees. We had a lot of trees around in our house garden – mango, guava, litchi, jackfruit, custard apple, pear, banana, betelnut, rose apple (Golap jaam), pomelo (Batabi lebu / Jambura), Bael, Sugarcane and many other big trees like the Ritha, drumsticks and of course a bush of bamboo (a signature of Assam). We also had a few others that we grew seasonally like the pineapple and a range of vegetables during the winters. I remember playing football in the courtyard with pomelos that were no longer suitable for consumption (at least we). Those childhood afternoons in Assam, I miss them.
Why the afternoons don’t feel the same anymore? Thoughts keep coming and sadness of nostalgia overpowers next, fast.
