Life has changed a lot…….

Changed so much, that sometimes my existence is lost between the past, present and the future.

Sometimes when my mind is in turmoil, it stops  and the gears are shifted from forward to reverse. And through a time travel I am transported back…..to the happiest part of life…..my childhood. 

Some of my best days in childhood were spent at my maternal grandparents place in a beautiful village back then. Ironically I live in the same village now but it no more happens to be the same. 

Back then the sunrays like paintbrushes would pick up the green colour from the thick canopy of palm leaves and finally paint out sketches on the canvas of the ground. 

My grandmother lived in their old ancestral house. I still remember the rough texture of the walls. The layers of the indigo white wash (chunno ) pealing out in many places exposing the yellow mud of the walls. Although long gone, the picturize of the narrow alley that ran from the entrance to the dark kitchen side is still clear in my mind.

The sun’s rays passing through a few glass roof panels would create beams of light that cut across the darkness and often highlighted the dust or smoke in the air. There was one beautiful window with its panes made up of neatly stacked up oyster shells.

I guess it was the mud walls and cowdung floor that kept the house cool from within even on the hottest of days. It was a rule for kids in those days to compulsorily sleep after lunch so that we didn’t dose off for the evening rosary. I remember sleeping on the mat made of reeds. I often rolled over onto the cowdung floor. Even today I love sleeping on floors but today our floors are different. They are like mirrors they reflect everything, even the frown on people’s faces and they are so hard …..If you fall, either you get cracked or the floor does.
In the kitchen you would often find my beloved grandmother performing her regular periodic motion in grinding a paste for the curry.  Back then our lives were powered by Mechanical energy …….While today our lives our taken over by electrical energy. 

My maternal grandmother and one of our old neighbor aunt have played quite a significant role in my life. Both of them besides being simple, humble ladies …..To me were the epitome of gracefulness and courage. The stories they both told me about their childhood and youth are imprinted in my mind. 

I guess they were the last generation that inherited a legacy……..a legacy of a beautiful land, a legacy of it’s beautiful humble people, a legacy of grace over beauty, a legacy of God over wealth …….a legacy of a lost world.

And I ………Well I am a witness of the Loss of that Inheritance. My mind saddened by the loss travels back to the turmoils of the present.

Maybe I should still be grateful that I got a glimpse of the lost Inheritance.