My Childhood Friends

Although the green paddy fields come first in the memories of my childhood, it was not in a village I spent my childhood. It was neither a town too. A middleclass locality where a few families were staying has all the facilities in the nearby areas. It was a calm and quite area with narrow gravel roads and one main road that leads to the nearby town. The main road was also very narrow when compared with the present day roads and the traffic was less or almost nil at most of the time. Bicycles were the only vehicles seen on the road baring one car belongs to a doctor and two scooters and one or two buses that used to carry the inhabitants to and from the nearby city where most of the male population used to work. Except for two or three teachers, most of the womenfolk were leading a life of home makers. Their primary and the only duty were to take care of their wards.

My house was situated in the middle of a big compound which may extend to an area of more than an acre. The old styled tiled roof house has a built up area of hardly 100- square feet. Rest of the compound was filled with many trees and bushes. On those days the minimum age to join school was five years and the period well before joining school was the most romantic period in my life.

We were living in a joint family. My grandmother and the cook will be busy inside the kitchen and my uncles, who were bachelors on those days, will leave for their work in the nearby city. In a joint family, there are rooms allocated to each branch of the family. My mother, two brothers and I used to stay in a room that is located in the south-east corner of the house. The room has two big windows one facing the east and the other facing the south. The windows were secured with iron rods run parallel from one end to the other of the window apart from two wooden shutters. We never used to shut the window except when it is raining heavily. 

My younger brother was too young to be a companion for me and when my elder brother leaves for school I feel alone. That solitude was not at all boring. I used to climb on the iron rods of the window facing the east. Just outside there was a huge jackfruit tree where a good number of squirrels were living. I have a friend among them, a little one who used to come to the tip of a branch of the tree that is almost reaching our window. He (to be honest, I didn’t know the gender of that squirrel still I preferred to treat him as a male on those days) sits there for a long time staring in my eyes. He used to tell something in his own language which I guess what he means and used to reply in my language. Every now and then I used to throw small pieces of bananas and other fruits down the soil, which he will come fast, pick up and then go back to the top of the branch. I swear that I used to see his eyes shining brighter whenever he looks at me after taking the gifts I am offering him.

Some days there will be a visitor, a sparrow. She ( I didn’t know the gender here also still I treated the sparrow as a female) will sit in a branch next to the one where my friend squirrel is sitting and starts teasing us with her chimes. Although I enjoyed her chimes a lot some time I used to get angry. Mostly it happens when she interfere with her chimes when I am discussing something seriously with my friend. But she had the sense to stop teasing when I am getting annoyed.

Days have passed and I had to join school when I became five year old. The new friends, new lessons, new knowledge, new wisdom everything made me a new person and slowly I started forgetting my childhood friends, the squirrel and the sparrow.

As you turn the pages of your text books, you are not only gaining knowledge but also getting old. It is a natural process and no one can help undergoing it. And when you gain more knowledge you are assisting the development of your society. And when you get old you will feel proud of assisting your society in development.

Being guided by the law of the nature, I too participated in the development of my society. I studied well, got an employment, got married and paid all taxes properly. I never turn behind from using the latest technology whenever it is necessary as I felt that it will turn our society back to centuries. Along with me my society was also developing.

Recently in a weekend I left alone without anything to do specially. I was experiencing the solitude once again after years. Presently I am staying in a city apartment and even this has two windows one facing east and the other south, but I could not see the branch of jackfruit tree near the windows. When I opened the window on the eastern side, I saw a young girl standing in the balcony of the nearby apartment and talking to someone over her mobile phone. Suddenly the old days came in my memory. I never had the need of equipment to talk to my friends. Even we didn’t have a common language, still we communicated our feelings and emotions clearly and that was the reason for the longstanding relation between us. I felt guilty for neglecting them for a long time. I have grown up and that 3 year old boy has a son now. What would be the condition of my childhood friends? The question started haunting me.

It was long time since I visited my native place and I decided to visit there once. Dreaming about an evening walk on the calm and quite gravel roads I landed in the airport. As the cab approaching my place, I could see wider roads and huge buildings. The compound where my tiled roof house was situated has become a colony consisting of many modern bungalows. And there was not a single tree in the vicinity. Except for some pet dogs I could not find any animals or birds. My heart was beating fast and I felt like getting unconscious. The thought about my childhood friends started haunting again me. Where they might have gone? Now, being a science graduate I know that they will not be alive as their life span is lesser when compared to that of human beings. But is it possible to see some their successors? I started walking through the black top road, which was a gravel road during those days leading to the riverside. 

Everything has changed. There are no coconut trees that once used to extend to the middle of the river. There is no mango tree in the front of the gate. Everything has paved way for the new generation buildings. But to my joy I found the same old small shop near the river which used to sell cigarettes for the fishermen. I approached the shop. It is as same as the one it was years before. The shop owner who was a young man then turned old. When I introduced myself he recognized me. He offered me a cigarette and when I offered to pay for it he rejected it with a smile. I talked about the changes in the surroundings. He replied with calmness.

“When you want to gain something you should sacrifice something.”

Yes. I want to gain but why the sparrows and squirrels should sacrifice their lives for my gain? When I want to live in luxuries, why should they lead their lives in the cages in zoo? Why we are making others to sacrifice for our gains? Is this earth belongs to humans only?

Mind has become more unrest with haunting questions and paining memories. I could not withstand the force of emotion. I waved goodbye to shop owner and went back to my cab. Asked the driver to take me to the nearest bar.