MEMORIES

add

Yesterday, I was, today I am; but tomorrow what? Every moment humanity vanishes continuously to unfamiliar eternity. Tomorrow or the next might be my turn to undertake, however unwillingly, the journey to infinity. Ever as this write-up is essayed my momentum is rallying at an indeterminate rate and zeroing to the terminal station. Constantly my mind posed the question, “what achievement shall I bequeath posterity in the field of humanities, science and technology”. Disappointingly, non whatsoever. No aspect of my life has been spectaculars just a specimen of myriads of faceless human being past and present, who entrained in continuity on a one-way transit across mundane medium, and whose individual contributions were indistinguishable from their common traits of survival of the fittest. Unlike the Northern star and such other luminous celestial bodies. Hardly is my twinkle noticed in the distant galaxies. This era to which I belong shall be remember and sublimated by the abundant monuments and historical landmarks of the colossus's and prodigies of the period. How fast the year fleet by! Childhood was only yesterday, a very impressionable age of worship and year of adults. A fertile ground for accepting and imbibing prejudice and superstition without questions. Adults were regarded with awe as giants and man-mountains to be face and addressed with head title backwards sharp incline. At the distance horizon, line with the foreground of woods and forests, the earth and the skies were seemed together like concave basin and its overlapping cover. The skies seemed supported by the trees. Hopefully one though he could climb the tree and reach out to the heaven with long bamboo poles; but frustratingly the nearer the approach to the further the horizons receded. The parents were the repository of knowledge and wisdom and must be idealized and sack games, of wresting on the sandy grounds, of crying with least provocation by the elders. Football game was most exciting. The ball were scarce and when available came in size of tennis-ball. Mostly improvise were-made by collecting rubber latex from the rubber tree into large rounds tightly bound with string of the rubber latex (dried). The ball when kicked it will bounce as other normal ball. Open space for games were absent; the house were mainly of mud walls either thatched or straw roof with no glass doors or windows. So the ball were played with abandonment, and relished without fear of protests for possible damages and very often when the ball is kicked, it will bounce so fast and lost in the surrounding bushes. It was play and enjoyed most of the time with minor house chores for distractions. At night after dinner, fairy tails fired our imaginations. The foxy and witty tortoise, with all the pithy saying and proverbs to its credit, was the star and center of admiration in the allegories of the animal kingdom. The night especially under the benign of moonlight glow provided special attractions. Dances and play were rehearsed in preparation for the imminent festival; and we chorused lustily the refrain of the story teller. Life was once stupendous amphitheater for entertainment; no dreams or vision; ambition was more absent than nascent; and the future only evanescent into immediate murky tomorrow. Yes, a moment ago the sunshine and the halcyon days of youth flourished and luster in full splendor and recede in to emptiness. The nights seemed fixed and reluctant to follow the sequence of the events of nature the mood was joyfully ebullient carefree and adventurous often risk were taken at the expense of precaution and safety old age was a very remote expectation for which no one bothered. Between the boys and girls mutual consciousness existed; the former was gregarious and extroverted, always exploring new field of conquest; but the later was dove-like and homely exuding confidence and alluring auras. Also came the age of adolescence. Boarding school and tutelage under fosters and masters, apprenticeships in masonry, carpentry, motor mechanics, tailoring and merchandising were very popular. A large number of homebody engaged in basic agricultural farming in supports of their parents earnings. Every dry session the tall and ubiquitous palm trees provided avenues for competitions among the youths for excellence in the number of branches of ripe nuts harvested. With special palm fiber ropes, and sharp cutlass in hand, the boys hurriedly climb up and down the tree tops and hacked down the bunchy fruits. And with the boat-like baskets on their heads, the girls scampered to the feet of the trees to carry to the collection centers. My imagination vanish and unrestrained. It downed on me the sun was setting; and the luminous disc was disappearing in the nebulae of the western horizon. The benign ray of the evening flood light faded and verged into the advancing twilight zone. We were a luminous crowd of co-travelers training heedlessly toward the zone. Gradually but steadily the twilight was creeping on us. From our vantage ground the foremost crowd was thinning down to a procession presently, the travelers began entering the corridors of the twilight zone. They were staggering, reeling, swagging and groping; and irreversible they continued the procession. But the yonder region of darkness intercepted their paths at various points. Nonetheless, they continued the processing ass if under the spell of a powerful and irresistible voice. One after the other they vanished into the bosom of the darkness. I was very much alarmed and unnerved, the more so, as our own vantage ground was flouting like the cork on the surface of a sludge’s meandering streaming, albeit imperceptibility towards the twilight zone. Surely, the direction of one way, and the destination well known and irrevocable. Posterity would pass this way, and would only remember and identify an insignificant few among mummies of the predecessors. So, I unleashed the pen, nonetheless a novice and inexperienced in the noble art of writing.

add