Autumn In Kashmir

Wrapped in a blanket, with the laptop in my lap.. I think about my childhood, and the way I spent it... 

When I was a kid, about five or six years old, I liked spring season the most. The reason was simple... it was neither hot nor too cold … the perfect season for me to play in the sun and not feel exhausted at all…

Spring in Kashmir was the only time when nobody asked why I was out there in the sun or why I was playing so much...

This continued till Eighth grade until I was drifted to books forever …

Tuition…School…Home… Tuition …. School … home …

This was my life … yet spring was always the favorite because it meant more work and less exertion...

Four beautiful years in Jammu and I forgot Kashmir altogether … it was something I had never expected to happen...

Summers were hot and hotter … winters were cold but not colder … and then there was this monsoon … the month of humidity and sweat... it was the most irritating month … but what made it beautiful in the end was something very special …

After four long years of this experience … finally the degree was over and I came back … back to Kashmir... Which now is altogether new to me .. I feel alienated with the traditions and customs …

Father and me share different views about today … He still fears talking to armed men and I do it casually and without hesitation … He won’t let me out after 8o’ clock and there I used to be out even by 2 at night …

And as I land back to Kashmir and the summer is about to end .. I see the beauty of this place … something I had never enjoyed before …

The Autumn season …

 

While driving alongside my School … I see the mighty Chinars and their golden rusty leaves… the road was full of them … and instantly there was a flashback… with me playing in that heap of leaves and that characteristic rusty smell they give… the crumbling sound that the leaves used to make and that laughter that resounded when someone used to fall on them .. magical …

Autumn was never so cherished before, as I do now … just because things we tend to take for granted are actually the best things in the world …

Why… because, some things remain beautiful if they remain untouched …

Just as Autumn was for me …