On the National Highway from Trivandrum to Attoor, a rural district in coastal Tamil Nadu, at somewhere called Parashuvakkal, is an IBP Gas station, that invariably has to catch the passer-by’s fancy. A bed of golden yellow blossoms is what makes you drive in here, though your fuel-meter shows a Full needle.
On retrospect, there are quite a few facts that I would have liked to remember more about. I find it amazing when someone tells me of the things that they did in the second grade or of their animated antics in the kindergarten. Forget the KG classes; I barely remember anything from my PG classroom, except perhaps a few faces that forever have remained dear.
There have been so many shades of life that had caught my fancy over the years; those that I thought would remain etched fresh in my memory for ever. Ha!! I should have thought again… for today, I do not see even a trace of those seemingly unforgettable attributes of existence anywhere across my intellectual milieu. How I wish I could remember the first movie that I ever saw, or the first song that I sang on stage. I fervently wonder to whom it was that I first send an SMS to, or the first website that I ever saw. The first ever book that I diligently finished reading or the first ever greeting card that I blissfully received. The first ever story that I painfully wrote or the first e-mail that I vigilantly sent. I wonder who it was, from among my students whom I first talked to, and have forgotten the name of the fair boy with a crew-cut who first said he liked the way I taught. The first ever gift that I bought for my father, or the first ever drive that I went for in my car. The list of first-evers could go on and on…So many vital things seen and heard, but brushed clean, never to return.
Which was why, I decided to put up here, a pic that I managed to click once we got down for a closer inspection at the IBP station. One that would remain as long as the Kaleidoscope stays put, the fragrance of which will linger around, long, long after the webpage is closed. I badly wanted it to be here… lest I forget…
