Wednesday, February 18, 2015

My First Love

It took me an aeon to actually realise that falling in love  comes naturally , easily .... and quite unknowingly too... :-) :-)
All these years  I cursed the Hindi Films for creating what I thought was an unnecessary hype about " First Love " because how much ever I thought of it , I could not remember the boy/man who was my so called First Love :-)

Yeah ! Yeah ! Memory takes a dip for the worse when one is getting old .... Lekin phir bhi .... If First Love was anything so exceedingly important , then  no matter how many dips the memory takes , or even if it freezes , that precious image had to remain forever intact and eternally exciting.
Not only this , there had to be and "in-built instant recall system" in the brain (or may be the heart in such cases ;-) ) to fetch it back at one's will and desire.
Strangely there seemed none in my case ....
Okay so this proves I was different .... Perhaps I just wasted my delightfully naughty teenage only to get tied up with the responsibilities of  a  married life some years  later :-)
Honestly this sounded a little boring and I sympathised fully with myself on having lost such priceless moments doing nothing !!!

But one fine evening as I sat with my cup of tea listening to an old song of Rafi-Dev Anand combo the memories of my First Love flashed like a rejuvenating sparkle , lighting up the evening with a glow that was both enriching and splendorous  ....
Never for a day was it away from my heart ...
Yeah ! Never away because it was not a memory .
It was a part of my own self ...and  as I grew up and matured , so did the magic of my first love ...its aura engulfed me so affectionately that I feel incomplete without those moments of euphoric joyousness and quiet contentment ....
Those were moments so gloriously colourful .... So divinely soothing .... So eternally stunning !!!

What was my age then ?
A tender thirteen or fourteen I think .
Father was posted at a place which was filled to the brim  with abundant  natural beauty ... And children were not over protected out there  for the simple reason that the place was perfectly safe .
The bungalow we lived in was almost on the edge of a valley ... And about a quarter kilometer away was this place that I would often go to all by myself.

Oh! How immensely I missed  that priceless phase in life  and longed to experience it all over once again right there ....at that very moment with the cup of tea in my hands and the song playing in the background ... :-)

The place where I used to sit evening after evening was a rock on the edge of the mountain . Far Far down below , in the valley there was a small village.
The huts in the village spread out vast and wide covering a large part of the valley . Evening was the time when , as the sun prepared to give us a cool and cozy break,  smoke could often be seen coming from the huts . A sign of  contentment that the families were preparing  a meal and would go to bed with their stomachs full ...
And across the valley rose the mountain range once again .... Behind which the sun had its retiring chamber :-)
I would forget the world around me and stare completely mesmerised by the magic unfolding right before my eyes as the sky changed colours from golden , to bright orange , from bright orange to dark ....and from dark oragne to a poetic mix of orange and grey ....
Why must all this happen so quickly ?
Why could Time not stand still in those divine moments when God  turned painter ?
Why must all that wealth of gold be lost in the darkness within such a short time ....

Oh! How passionately and wholeheartedly  I desire to hold those moments in my arms and sit with them forever !!!
That one picture of  "The Setting Sun" which I used to see almost every evening keeps coming back to me every day even now ...
That glorious sight was created by the Almighty right before me ....and solely for my eyes !!!
What a Heavenly  treat it was .... !!!
Even now I can feel its magic within me ....it gives me goose bumps whenever I think of it ....it makes me smile ...and it makes me happy
That sheer magnificence sure was ,   still is and will always remain my First Love ...
 

7 comments:

Unknown said...

This is like a Wordsworthian narrative, in its lyrical description of the joy you felt in your natural surroundings;and the sense of harmony and tranquility you experience.Also the lament at the loss of these, is v Wordsworthian.

Beautiful piece.

Unknown said...

This is like a Wordsworthian narrative, in its lyrical description of the joy you felt in your natural surroundings;and the sense of harmony and tranquility you experience.Also the lament at the loss of these, is v Wordsworthian.

Beautiful piece.

Zohra Javed said...

Wow ! Compliment to cherish Mimi :-) ... Lots of love to you always
And Thank you for such an encouraging and beautiful comment

Zohra Javed said...

Wow ! Compliment to cherish Mimi :-) ... Lots of love to you always
And Thank you for such an encouraging and beautiful comment

Unknown said...

Beete hue din aise hi hai,yaad aate hi dil machal jaaye.
Zohra ji bas mujhe aur kuch likhna nahin aata.....nice reading

Unknown said...

Zohra ji Mohanlal Talreja mere father ka naam hai jinke naam se email id banaya hai...Harish Talreja aka Suraj Talreja...

Vivek S Patwardhan said...

Dear Zohra, we lived in the same bungalow (as far as my memory goes) so I instantly relate to what you said.