Sunflower

The old man sat on the same old bench, in the same old garden, in his same old clothes. Yes, a lot has changed. The tree which once gave shade to this bench had been cut off a few months ago because of some parasite growing on it. The garden was once an empty ground, now it had many slides, swings, merry-go-rounds, and sand pits (why do they need those, there is sand everywhere - he used to wonder’). Most of all. The company with whom he used to come had changed. As a toddler, his mum used to take him to play with the other kids. That must have been the time when he first met the cat eyed girl. Many other times when he came, he was with his boys. With their shiny new bikes, trying to grab the attention of the cat eyed girl, in a pretty elegant dress, lost in the book. A few more years passed ahead in front of his eyes. He was now on the same bench, but with the cat eyed girl! - Allysa, Issa, he used to call her. And her eyes were not on the book anymore, but on him. His hands were no...

Kerala of the 1980s was very different from what it is now. There were no concrete roads, less cars and much more interaction among people. It was all play time for kids in the primary section. Two of them were Nandu and meera. They were siblings and were in pre-primary respectively. Living in a small neighbourhood, they could go anywhere around till they returned before 7 pm. It Was a sunny Sunday and both of them were walking around the neighborhood.  They observed a mulberry tree which had one of these branches perfect for a swing. And that was what they decided to do, tie a swing ! They found a rope which was used to tie a cow and threw it around the swing. They used a thin wooden plank for them to sit.  And the swing was successfully ready! Meera chose to sit first. Nandu pushed her from behind. Both of them were having great fun. But sadly, they did not know physics; the rope constantly moving back and forth had caused wear and tear to occur. The branch fell down but mor...