Akidat ke phool chaddha kar..
Chhoti si ekal baddha kar..
Aaye hai sar ko jhuka kar..
Tujhse dua maangte hum..
I learnt this song listening to my sister sing it in school. I was in Montessori back then. We used to walk to school together, either singing such rhymes or discussing the day ahead. On our way back we used to collect “Bandar ki Roti“, small flattened leaves with an edible nut sealed between them, in our empty tiff-ins. Homework was more fun with some Monkey’s Bread to chew on.
It’s wonderful how we never forget some things. You can always recall them vividly, no matter how long ago they happened. They stick out in the puddle of your memories, letting you step over them and cross over to times that are long gone. There stands 5 year old me, crying, cause he is being sent to school and a little away is the 15 year old me, with his mate, standing outside the class. Together they are weaving incredible worlds out of their imaginations, too creative for the confines of a classroom. Everything else in between the two is faded, vague. There, but not so significant.