Echoes Of Childhood… Poem by Bharat Trivedi

A wonderful warm feeling
and all the senses reeling,
with nostalgia in my heart
I walk down the memory lane,
my naive eyes, once
sparkling with dazzling dreams
now long to see those school friends
and craving for my chubby childhood
lost in the maze of maturity,
entire ephemeral adolescence passed
just in a wink of an eye,
wisdom of years entangled
in the web of withering vintage.
Stopping at the crossroads of growing-up
images still vivid, though.
Those shadowed dusty roads and bicycle races,
treasure box filled with marbles and spiral sea-shells,
fights for those multi-coloured kites and
for rides on rocking wooden horse to magical wonderlands,
barefoot, running after fluttering butterflies,
playful pranks and carefree chatters, followed by
string of pearly giggles and cheerful chuckles

Schoolbags perched on the delicate backs,
oil-groomed carefully parted hair,
smart starch-white school uniform
cherry-blossomed shiny-squeaky shoes rushing to
our School - our Alma mater,
The shrill chanting of morn prayers in unison and
unanimous singing of national anthem.
Teachers with bamboo canes, yelling at mass drill queues
in the school ground, where we pushed one another
for rides in the swing.
Eagerly waiting for the recess bell
to gulp down the spicy chutney-sandwiches
sold in school canteen!

Aroma of mother’s divine cooking
wafting up from the kitchen and
that delicious bites of ripe-gold papayas,
mouth-watering mangoes and
parrot-pecked emerald guavas
stolen from Lalaji’s orchard.
Sindbad voyages of newspaper-boats
in the rain filled rivers of innocence…

Disguised as a middle-aged adult,
I return as a young boy, that once I was,
to my childhood home, so familiar,
only to hear the echoes of
of my faded childhood
drifting with the breeze of time
that swept it away…

Copyright ©2008 Bharat B. Trivedi