Summer and an Old Cabinet

As I was going to my guitar class today, sitting next to the bus driver, I gazed at the road while thousands of thoughts hovered inside my head, and suddenly I got glimpses of colours- fiery colours. My eyes traveled upwards from the blackness of the road and saw those scarlet and yellow flowers. The Krisnochura and Radhachura trees adorned the desolate sky. And someone hummed in my ears,”Summer…Summer…Summer…” Not the intolerable heat, not even the sweat dripping down my face made me realize that summer has come but these two ‘lovers’. They used to make me happy, they still do.

       

        Summer was never a favourite season; tell me which Indian likes Summer! But suddenly I see myself reminiscing. The whole season was centered around the Summer Holiday…In the afternoon when the whole house was having its beloved siesta, I used to sneak out of my room and go to the attic with a storybook and didn’t return till I hear my mother calling my name at the top of her voice. Playing ‘rannabati’, recreating the adventures of The Famous Fives at the terrace,listening to the “golpodadur asor” on radio... And the mouth-watering kacha aam and hojmi. Sluurp! My life and death task before the beginning of the summer vacation was to nag,just to get the keys of  a cabinet. The cabinet full of magazines (Anandamela,Suktara etc) from my parents childhood to date. How me and Sanu plotted and planned for hours to read those precious little things!

       

      And now when I look back I miss ‘my’ Summer days and I feel that at one time this girl loved summer. Nothing remained the same now, no summer vacation, no ‘golpodadur asor’ …nothing. Though I stand in front of the “old and rusty’ cabinet sometimes and wonder, but never dared to open it again!

And today those fiery colours,those two ‘lovers’ evoke in me the same sensation that once a little girl had felt when her Jethima finally handed her the keys.