The miles bygone...

           The rain was mighty. But it wouldn’t dampen the spirits of the children running home after school. The elderly stood by the bus stop trying to talk sense into the tiny tots, their cheery faces contorting in reply.I was headed home, after a long while. The home coming of a warrior, or so it felt. I took a few moments to fill my heart with the happiness around me. Buses passed in the lightning speed, yet the kids took no notice. They prefered walking, a single umbrella only partially sheilding a herd of them rushing with glee. The songs they sang weren’t great ones but it seemed like the rain rhymed along, the smell of the freshly wet earth blended in and the cool breeze that made earth just feel like heaven.

                There I was, at a coffee shop, sipping coffee while iron clad asbestos kept the rain from coming in and a warm kerosene lamp birghtened the darkened interiors. I watched the thoughtful elders around me, each in their own world of thoughts, of wants, desires and unfulfilled wishes, of races to win, of families to feed… They had come a long way in life, onrounte to the seven ages as Shakespeare had said…

                Home seemed more than welcome, the rain had stayed all along my journey. I stood by the gates, breathing in the fresh homely air.  Memories hung in from the interiors of home, waiting to cling to me. My presence was known, I could feel it. I could see things left outside by my bro’s little baby who had just recently learnt to walk and loved to hide things in lonely corners of home. I remembered how my dad would take her out to the veranda to show her the rain. She would chuckle as the little drops of rain fell into her hands. She would then look at my dad and smile with glee. And like children, they both would walk around the house, with their own languages to communicate and her tender fist cozy in the warmth of his age hardened hand. She would be delighted in the colour of a leaf, or the smell of a flower, the brightness of the sun shading light into her room in the morning. Sometimes I wonder, over the years as we grew, all that’s happened is that we’ve stopped finding happiness in small things...

The raindrops now bounced around like little rubber balls trying hard to reach me as I sat by the threshold of my home. It was fun to play “catch me if you can” with them. Nothing ever lasted forever, like the rain, like childhood, like the wonderful flowers that brightened my day…

Brevity… Life was always full of it. Maybe because dreams once true lose their charm, maybe because somethings are best left unsaid, some wishes best left unfulfilled…  I thought to myself, as the rain echoed away behind me, “The miles were eternal, not just the miles to come, but the miles bygone… “