That Summer Day in 1998

She smiled from 2018 back to 1998

Year 1998, 

It's the summer vacations and I'm in the garden outside our bungalow. I'm lounging in my home clothes. Clothes weren't even a question actually. Every day is now a Sunday. And here I was playing all by myself. My sister is taking a bath, I've ditched her and come out to play. She had told me to wait. My cousins are on their way to join but till then I'd to prepare about what we could play. Then I also collect leaves, help grandpa to clean the mess. Why do so many leaves fall every day? I asked him. He did not answer, just smiled.

Grandmother is cooking in the kitchen while keeping her eye on me. As long as I don't slouch and lie in the mud, things are fine. I'm counting the whistles of the pressure cooker. And I'm counting the raw mangoes on the tree as well so that I can show it to my brother and sister when they come! I can beat them at the counting game. My aunt calls me from the terrace, asking me to come eat something first and then go play. But I just stick out my tongue and tease her back. She shouts but I just laugh back again. There's no hunger, only playful satisfaction. 

Life is good!

There's a knock on the door. I rush to open it. As I open it slightly, there's a lot of light flashing on me. My eyes itch. I'm figuring out who is at the door. There's a blurry vision and it slowly becomes clear.

It's 2018! But why?

Because there are no cousins coming to play. No, they're married, right? No one plays in the garden anymore. There is no garden, it is just a compound. The sister took bath and has gone off to her work. The leaves still fall, they create a mess. But grandpa picks them up on alternate days now. The mangoes get stolen by someone else and I can't even help. Grandmother is cooking, but now, only she counts the pressure cooker whistle. I look up at the terrace, aunt is no more calling me for food.

But hey, now I know what hunger is.

I think everyone does. But the insatiable one. All have grown up to satisfy their respective hunger- for relationships, for success, for money. I'm too a part of that race. The hunger that takes you away from 1998 or any goddamn year when were just 5 years old.

Hello, 1998! Life is good.