Counting the Stars

How do you feel when you go back to a place after more than 30 years? A film rolling in front of your eyes. You could see yourself and all that you had said and heard were echoing in your ears. It was like a dream. But you could see its echo in the mind of a young person, born a long time after those days were over. I believe that every word and thought we create stays on this earth , till eternity. The life you lived there 30 years back had haunted him like a ghost and he didn't know that there were no ghosts. It was you, your words, your thoughts, your life.

The stairs were still the same. The property had been divided, so the roof was smaller now. And up above you could still see the constellations, faintly. I saw the fireflies just below them near the top of the coconut trees. It was dark and it was difficult to grasp which were the stars and which were the fireflies. Despite their size, they had the same twinkling effect. And the sound of the crickets couldn't be missed, even among the din of the loudspeakers at the nearby Durga Puja pandal. The pollution, population, sound and lights weren't there so many years ago. It was you, your friends and cousins and a world of imagination and dreams. Sometimes I wonder if it's better to dream than to actually live through them. The days you spent dreaming now come back to you like a dream. They are now more precious to you, lovelier.