We were sitting on a stone sill outside the school gate after the evening bell munching those green berries and guava with a pinch of salt. We were in high school and fun was in the air. Exams were nearing. While winking our eyes to the sore taste of salt mixed with mirchi, I asked one of my friends, ‘What do you want to do after schooling? Which college?’ He had no idea and we all had vague dreams waiting to get a shape when the exams got over and the evening was left incomplete just like the after-use salt we threw in the garbage. The guava vendor was a hardworking guy who comes to the town to sell berries and guavas near the school. I noticed he was a struggling man who worked hard to earn his bread. We never knew what hard working or what real life felt like. We were just flowing like an aimless river. There were few similar evenings we had when the guava tasted same and the salt was sore but life was moving on and we never figured out what we meant to do with our lives. We were in higher secondary school days when the evenings got cold and the sun was somber. We wore warm sweaters inside our school uniform and it gave us a feeling that this will be our last winter in our school but time flew and the sun was shimmering on the steel labels of our bags. We hardy had any days left to choose our career and we started shopping our accessories to exams. We splashed inks on our uniforms heralding a victorious end to schooling but not a single moment passed by without fretting about our college. Few friends who never paid for the guavas found their answers and perhaps, found a way to college. Almost all the friends were left scattered like the food of a hen on a ground, which I noticed in my neighbor. I looked at the scattered food and now I wonder if it was time, which whisked us away and if it will pick each of us to put together for one last time on the broken sill of the school gate and maybe then, scatter us away again. Those laughter moments are still hanging in the air like a lost cloud.
Posted on: Fri, 07 Mar 2014 12:46:50 +0000
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