Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “may.” Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!
One telephone call, and that opened the floodgates of memories to rise to the surface. Memories we thought we had forgotten. My mother and I re-lived the past and it was as if the events were happening in front of our eyes. We were spectators. It is interesting that we had not forgotten anything but there was a difference. I think we had become more objective and time had erased the emotional involvement. Time had healed but I feel scars remain. Relationships change. But life goes on.
A few days ago, we were eating jackfruit happala ( a crisp snack). My thoughts immediately went back to our childhood days. We spent our summer vacations in the months of May and June at our maternal grandparents’ home. We visited many of our relatives. My eldest aunt lived in the village. We had to cross streams and fields to reach her home. We stayed there for two days. There was wild mango tree in the garden aptly named ‘jaggery mango’. There were star apple and guava trees. We helped to make jackfruit happala. All this happened more than forty years ago but I can picture myself and the others there in that time. Life has changed so much since then.
When I go to the library now, I remember those days of childhood when libraries had been such a wonderful part of life. They are now too. These days I read many books online. But the experience of browsing and searching for books is special. Aravind was searching for Amar Chitra Katha comics for his niece and nephew. Looking at the delivery charges we decided that it was better to go to the book shop to buy them. In the early seventies, my grandfather bought them for my younger brother. He read them aloud and my brother enjoyed the pictures. He knew most of the stories before learning to read.
How time flies ! Now my grandchildren are going to enjoy the stories.In fact, Advaith reads to Kavya and she listens to him with rapt joy. The other evening Aravind asked her , ” Do you read books ? ” in German. She answered likewise, ” Advaith reads book, Appa also reads book, Amma also reads book and Kavya also reads book.” Finally she said in Kannada , “we all read books.” I was happy that reading tradition is continuing. My nephew said he was happy the reading bug has infected the next generation too.
I am reading The Mahabharata, An Inquiry in the Human Condition by Chaturvedi Badrinath. It is a fascinating book. The author says the paradox of time is stated in many verses in the first chapter of the Mahabharata.
What was in the past, what will come in the future, and what is now, are the creations of Time. Knowing this, do not lose your faculty of discrimination.
Time is the root of all that is; and all that is not; of happiness and suffering alike.
The author writes, “Memory is a faculty without which human life will be impossible… No human activity is possible without memory… And the paradox is that memory, which sustains life must also destroy life.“
Halasina kayi happala recipe | How to make raw jack …
Mukhamani 
We had a Bookmobile in our rural community as the closest library was 6 miles away. I can still recall the small walking into that van filled with books.
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That Areca bridge looks scary. You can’t beat a real book 🙂
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They are fun to cross. They are usually used where the width of the stream is not much.
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Ah
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Yes, it is
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This has made me decide on reading The Mahabharata. I read The Bhagavad Gita which is technically a part of The Mahabharata where we are told that the creation started from a singularity which is defined as a formless consciousness. The start of creation means the start of time and memory. So, we start from a singularity, live our lives and return back to the singularity at the end of the creation. A simple thought but it took quite a lot of time for me to be able to identify it through my experience in life. Couldn’t think of a better way to express my thoughts which truthfully is my first expression on record.
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