A Childhood Nostalgia

The wind blew with ease shivering

Those Peepal leaves,

Giant trunk where small sparrows nestle,

Wide branches, stretch with green leaves heart-shaped,

Beneath a Peepal tree, Lord Vishnu, too born

Buddha, attained enlightenment.

The symbol of peace rest in you,

The great Peepal tree,

Under which I spent my childhood playing,

Marble games and dirt games.

So cool and resting, the wind blew

Under that Peepal tree.

I had when I was a child….

Many years from today,

I visited that place where that giant stood, once

That coolness of the breeze, I breathe no more

That peace I can’t find anymore.

When I was a child

I didn’t wanted them

I needed the shade

To play, to hop, to enjoy

Friends and me,

Marble games we played under that Peepal tree

I stood, there, remembering my past

Watching above, where once those green leaves flew alive

I can see, now, only the vast sky

Clear blue, white clouds hovers by

The half cut trunk still there

Not a voice, I can hear

The voice of brushing wind against the leaves.

The tree is gone,

But when…..??

Someone cut it……

But my memory will always remain…

The Peepal tree of my childhood,

 Where I played for long,

Afternoon time, after school, friends and me..

Those enjoyments of my childhood

Below that Peepal tree

I can see, now, was the peace in me..

But I have past my childhood

And, the tree, did not wait for me

I got another peace and sanity

Remembering all my past, under that tree…..

I have got another Peepal tree in me..

The memory, that I will preserve,

Which I had long years ago….

That will be and always stay with me…

With me and only with me.