Ya know when I was walking on the terrace yesterday, Mi, and missing Vidur as usual, I couldn’t help thinking how lucky I am. And so, I lapsed into a conversation in my head with you and Vidur in turns.
As I looked up at the blue sky and the white clouds forming patterns across it, changing colors with the setting sun, I smiled. I remembered how, years ago you, Vidur and I would go up to the terrace with a handful of chalk for Vidur to draw on the red floor. He would look at the clouds and imagine they were Gods or animals and weave bizarre stories around them.
Then when he came to high school, he would explain the scientific phenomena that caused all these beautiful sights. Ask me questions I couldn’t answer. Wouldn’t give me the answers but question me further and make me think. Sometimes that feels like a loss of innocence, but I know that’s not so. He loves nature just as much as he used to.
I laugh thinking about how even the sight of our common crow would delight him and how pigeons on our verandah fascinated him. Oh, how he would get excited when he saw the parrots on the wall opposite our window and yell “kaaka” when he was not even a year old! He would hold on to the ledge of the window seat and try to focus with an incredulous expression on his face when they took off in flight, in groups and wonder where they disappeared.
Did I tell you the house opposite our building is being renovated? What a pretty sight it used to be from our vantage point, painted white with that pleasing grungy finish. And that unkempt plot of land on 6th Main with the dilapidated room overgrown with weeds? It is a swanky looking apartment building now.
Quite a few old bungalows are coming down in our area to give way to multi-storey buildings. Why, when I was returning home last week, I got off the airport bus at Ypur and took an autorickshaw home. When we passed 13th cross imagine my consternation when I saw one huge ground next to the Darshini! Wonder what is coming up there. And that ex-medhiniex-more supermarket building? Finally something appears to be going on.
How I miss More supermarket! Silly fellows have gone and relocated to Tumkur road as a mega mall. Not worth it to go there, I’ll probably spend more than I can save on simply getting there and back.
By the way, did I tell you someone gave me a freaked out look when they saw me unfolding a Medhini plastic bag the other day? I had a good laugh thinking of you.
Things change, life changes. And of course, change is good!
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