This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 4; the fourth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.
It happened to be the other day,
that I was passing by memory lane,
just then, across my mind, flashed a thought; a stray,
What if I were a baby again.
A voice from somewhere within nudged me to walk through the lane. It wouldn't be that easy I said to myself; sweet memories will rekindle the lamps of joy and old wounds will be reopened. I could lose myself in the labyrinthine passages and by-lanes.
"Are you afraid to face your past?", the voice asked.
"No!", I said
"Then make up your mind!"
“I’ll do it.”, I answered after a moments reflection.
“After you, sir” said the gentleman inside me.
As I made my way through the little galli, I heard more voices, this time from the outside, as I trudged further houses began to appear on either side. The voices weren’t just voices any longer, they belonged to the human forms that I spotted from afar, whose hazy outlines became increasingly solid as I approached.
As I approached the crowd of milling ‘human forms’ I was taken aback, these weren’t just any humans, these were people whom I had known or still knew since my childhood. Many of them were the ones with whom I had lost contact along the way. I suddenly felt guilty. I couldn’t make eye contact, not that it mattered - to them, I was invisible. They just walked past me or saw right through me, I dunno why but this made me feel even more guilty.
Trying hard to ignore the ignorance of the ones I had forgotten until now, I trudged ahead. I turned my attention to the houses. I had passed dozens of them but it was only now that I really noticed the strong waves of emotions emanating from every door, window and even every crack. I went near one, there were sounds of squealing laughter and commotion, I looked through the window to receive another shock, it was my childhood home and there I was celebrating my 5th birthday with loads of friends.As I stood there I smiled, laughed and jumped with joy as my 5 year old self cut the cake.
From there I ran to every window, each window showed me, in reverse order, the most important moments of my childhood life. Some happy, some sad, some that made me learn the most important lessons in life.
Finally I came to the very last window of the very last house on Memory Lane. I peeked in to see a tiny form wrapped in cloth sleeping beside it’s mother in what seemed to be a recuperating room of a maternity hospital. I could see the joy twinkle in the mother’s eyes…in my mother’s eyes. As I looked away from that window I realized I was crying as well.
Wiping away my tears, I stared at the dead end, there was a small fountain near the high wall marking the end of the lane.
The voice inside me asked “So now you have a choice, you can choose to be a baby again and relive or even change your moments of childhood or just walk back along the path you came and go on living the rest of your life, what will it be?”.
I thought for just a moment and firmly replied “No.”
Why, you would ask? Well if my childhood had not been the way it had turned out to be I would not be the person I am. Today, I may not be perfect but I am happy with the life that I am living and the people with whom I am associated. I would not want to change it for anything in the world.
That does not mean I did not learn anything from my trip down memory lane. I now, would certainly try to get in touch with the people whom I had lost contact with. I would apologize to those whom I had disheartened or let down in the past and thank those who helped or shared joy and happiness with me along the way.
At last, my steps I decided to retrace,
After witnessing the years gone by.
The past I had refused to embrace,
for childhood's rightful place was in my mind's eye.
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