The gigantic Jacaranda stood in the middle of the campus… underneath which, the little kids of the locality stand queued up every morning with their hands drawn to their breasts to perform the praying ritual.
Usually they sung the famous patriotic song of D. L. Roy “Dhana Dhannye Pushpe Bhora, Amader Ei Basundhora” (Our mother Earth is full of rich wealthy grains). The early morning air was enchanted by the immature voices of some two hundred children of various ages; sometimes some mature ones from the Teachers were also participated.
They were such a delightful crowd to watch! With dark blue and white uniform…blue trousers for the boys and blue skirts for the girls…they really look marvelous under the Jacaranda overloaded with pinkish violet flowers.
It was a noted kindergarten school of the town, entering where all the visitors were first welcomed by the South American origin Jacaranda with its waving boughs and the spray of soft pinkish-violet petals. The Jacaranda always smiled and offered the most memorable reception someone ever possibly had.
It was even the favourite most resort of the kids during the Tiffin
At one corner of the field, rather apart from the rest of the crowd, there stood two little children—one small boy, and the other, a “lady” of almost the same age.
They were completely uninterested about the playfulness of the others, and preferred it much better to spend the entire tiffin recess gazing at the flowering Jacaranda. The gigantic shape of the tree and the beautifully coloured flowers always were a cause of their wonderment. In their hearts they always nourished an unfailing love for the beautiful smiling Jacaranda.
They usually sat side by side, all speechless, just gazing at the lovely flowering tree amidst the campus of their beloved school.
It was really a marvelous sight…with no leaves seen…only the pinkish-violet petals!
It is just a memory of yesteryears now….the merciless time has snatched away all the “old familiar faces”…our memory is now dumped with some strenuous calculations of material “loss and profit”…..and we have almost forgotten that the Balance Sheet of the trivial emotions of childhood fantasies still remains unattended! The Trial Balance regarding that Gigantic Jacaranda and the heroic adoration it got from two similar aged class-mates is yet to be put up on a prescribed format, invented by the loss and profit seeker commercial-wits!
Unaware of all these commercial and technological terminologies, please, allow a little privacy to the two infants, sitting underneath the spreading boughs; and let them look for some times at their loveliest of trees….let them gather softly a skirt-full of violet petals….and then, silently watch them moving away…….
Let them move away to the farthest corner of the garden …
Let them make a heap of stones there…….
And then, let them scatter the petals on that newly made churchyard……….
The eternal grave of their dearest Jacaranda……
And while they bend on their knees and pray, you, the band of Judas’ can power on your huge electric teeth to tear the violet boughs apart….and calculate some equation of loss and profit….
But…Please, Bite softly; and suppress the metallic engine sound a little…..look, the young lovers are crying profusely……..and to all the ages of Humanity, it is more sweet a sound than your machine-made one!
- A salutation to my first school “Sishu Shiksha Kendra” of Purulia, and the lovely Jacaranda (Jacaranda mimosifolia) I met there.
- Photo Courtesy: Internet (Google Photo Search)
Good one, the only thing I must say is that the break is little harsh. 'Break' means, when you say 'It is just a memory of yesteryears now...'; little soothing transformation would've made it better...IMHO.
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