LORETO DIARIES : First Step into Loreto ....I The drive up the hill The huge open gates The fountain surrounded by flowers And me a tiny thing all of four plus maybe five Clinging to my Dad’s arm… Polished corridors Stained glass windows And SILENCE all around The swish of the habits… The jingling of the rosaries and An apparition in black and white appears And blue eyes the color of the sky accost me I want to run away Back to where I came from Into the folds of my Mummy’s saree And surrounded by the noise of A large joint family Gentle hands take hold of me And hold me close….an alien scent fills me up And terror takes hold of me Tears flow down and I see my Dad blow his nose While walking back to the car… And I slowly take my first steps into the unknown A Brave New World Where the sights , the smells, the food The people are alien… Women in a funny attire take me upstairs And show me my bed And the apparition in Black and White reappears And takes me down winding steps into a playground Where there are many like me In all shapes and sizes playing on the fields Hopscotch and Merry go around A teacher in a skirt takes over and I am ALONE…oh so alone…. Someone comes up to me and Says something in an alien tongue And the tears come down again! I want to go home….but more to follow Dinner time….array of cutlery…and even worse The food…no parathas and sabzis…just some funny Looking stuff and some watery thing in a bowl And bread and something called pudding Oh Lord…I am going to die hungry ! Then its bedtime and the woman in funny clothes Makes me brush my teeth , wash my face Change into my brand new red check night suit And tucks me into bed…And I fall asleep tired. That’s my first step into Loreto…. A world that will teach me, break me, make me Mould me, shape me into what I am today… But I didn’t know this at that time !! Circa 1960 March !
Posted on: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 05:29:27 +0000
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