Autumn

Autumn is finally here ... again.
(The first time I declared that to be the case was towards the end of July if I remember right)

I felt it this morning as I woke up - despite the sneezing. Saw it - as I opened the door and stepped out - in the clear blue skies and the sunlight glancing off the tallest trees. And I smelt it in the air. I enjoyed the nip in the air even as I devoured it by the lungful. Felt good. Even in the car, stuck in the traffic jam on the way to office, I actually had the time to sit back, relax and watch the lake ...



Maybe today was just another day. It is just that for me, since childhood, autumn has always been so special that I cannot stop this feeling of exhilaration from taking me over completely. Autumn as a kid meant the Durga Pooja holidays ... 10 days or more ... lots of gifts and Diwali not too far away. It also meant exams ... but that was a trivial concern. What really mattered were the 3 months of winter holidays.

There was the excitement of packing up and going off to be with Dad for the holidays. No studies!

Sometimes, it would not be possible to visit Dad. But that meant that we'd spend the holidays in the pine woods behind our colony - exploring. The pine needles would fall in a thick slippery carpet between the trees. We'd get rusty pieces of tin and use them to "ski" on the slopes. Inevitably, we'd eventually get cut or nicked by the tin sooner or later ... and then there would be the long walk up the hill to my uncles house to get the dreaded anti-tetanus shot.

A million other memories come to mind. I remember sitting out in the yard, back to the sun, eating oranges. Just that doing nothing else. Eating oranges. We'd use the "magnifying glass" to burn patterns into the wooden veranda railings. Hours of sunshine gave us a lot of time to get creative.

Playing cricket, badminton and other games - what made that so special was the fact that we kids actually cleared out a field by ourselves. We used it for a winter or two before someone came and built a house on it.

We didn't watch a whole lot of movies or TV. There wasn't any fast food to be had - unless you count bulls eyes (hard orange sweets). There was just us ... my brother, me, our small gang of friends, mom, dad, grandparents, my uncle aunt and cousin ... there were Enid Blytons (strictly for me - I was the book worm) ...

And that was about all.
And, that was about enough too ...
for then - and today I realize - for the life time to come.