Smooth Vanilla

Dessert Delight! Yes, it’s December, snowing in New Jersey, Glasgow, Warsaw, Toronto – I have quick clicks of snowy lanes of these foreign lands where my first degree of friend footprints got embossed. True, this year my country voted for “Acche Din”, just that my state chose otherwise. Never mind the nature didn't disappoint! The cold waves partially moved from north-west and have reached east.

Bright but gentle sunshine peeps in each morning through the broken corners of the wooden frame of the window facing east at some degree. In the by-lanes of my city of joy, amidst all uncertainties these lovely moments of hide and seek with the warmth of Kolkata r Sith (winter in Kolkata) is simply fabulous. You know he is around just to meet you for a while and you pretend to be oblivion of his presence just to spice the romanticism a little more.

Wished to pamper the lazy me under the fancy cover and shamelessly play out with the infatuated ray of light that made its way to the room. But the first quarter of weekend waits for you with a list of errands. Today had to step out to complete a small odd work. It was almost midday that I was crossing Basursree cinema hall on Hazra road. It has undergone change. A recent syndrome is any place of past acquaintance takes me backward little more than appreciating what is ahead and possibilities of future.

Rushing through last 350 odd days, when some close ones with a smiling face took a perennial seat behind the photo frame while toddlers in the house have started calling me by some new names that I just find excuse to hear again and again. The former, keeps me grounded and the later keeps me going! Our phone communication has graduated to an adult conversion as niece stepped into mid-teens. The young crowd in the circle did find jobs and some are sincerely digging matrimony sites. The senior citizens community around definitely added more rigor to medical needs and a few smart ones in the group attempted digital breakthroughs.  For them tablet serves a dual purpose - gulp with water as remedy and skype with grandchild as a prevention for a healthy lifeline.  That was life as usual.

Immediate friends most of them in early fourth decade have been exploring more of what is called “mid-life” crisis. Experimental recipes, pegs of hard liquor, colorful chirping and a plenty of meaningless nothings kept social circuits fresh. Be it classroom or office, you leave behind the certificates and designations and take forward some solid good moments for the album that goes fat each year. Every passing year makes this thought stronger.

It must be two decades that I visited the Basursree. And must be final year of college, four of us crossed the tram line to see the garland big cutout of a bollyhood hero. Larger than life images often provoke to think in different plane. We challenged ourselves to enjoy but finally left it little after the interval to settle for a wafer cone and one scoop of vanilla. That is what collective wallet could afford. Melting sunshine and bite of smooth vanilla left behind priceless moments that I flipped through with closed eyes. It was one such December.

Life is just a bundle of calendars. They just overlap as we cross pass each other to create moments – some good, some bad and rest is dust!  The classroom has new names for the same roll numbers, the hostel has new guests for same room, the office chairs have different people running the show with the same designations and the last page of this year’s calendar has half spread its wings to fly soon. While the Santa jingles all the way from the snowy land to the soft cozy corner of my room here is wishing a great fun filled year ahead full of vanilla moments. From the cacophony of the life let the rhythm evolve aloud 

“Aanewala Pal Jaanewala Hai

Ho Sake To Iss Mein Zindagi Bitaado Pal Jo Yeh

Jaanewala Hai

Ek Baar Waqt Se Lamha Gira Kahin

Wahaan Dastan Mili Lamha Kahin Nahin 
Thoda Sa Hasaake Thoda Sa Rulaake Pal Ye Bhi Jaanewala Hai”