Childhood

Little furry kitten paws

play upon crisp November sands.

Winter has stepped out into the sun!

A deserted twinkling

from untold memory lanes

silently leaves behind

my own gullible childhood.

It is a perfectly pleasant November noon. Winter is here. Ishai, Mish-Mish and Zaitoon are playing on the warmed up sun kissed sands. Mama Laila shoos away strangers with a fierce hiss and then lies down in the sunshine herself, gently tapping the tip of her furry tail in quiet contemplation. Must say, Laila has done a great job at protecting her three little kittens from predators around the neighbourhood. On most balmy evenings, Abhiir and I trot up to that abandoned red car in the parking lot which has been home to this Arabian feline family since the hot days of summer. We try to lure them into playing with us. But they continue to hide under the car. Abhiir bends down and calls them in his own language of actions and sounds. He offers them his biscuits.

Ishai is too shy. Mish-Mish has an impish expression. Zaitoon is the brave one and often musters the courage to peep out and then jump right back behind the car. Abhiir’s eyes light up as he giggles.

My mind instantly takes a memory train back to my childhood days when my sisters and I would spend the entire vacation with kittens, sometimes in our arms, sometimes cuddled up in our beds while at times dozing off with us on the cool summer terraces. How myriad moments become memories and how memory baskets sieve out special events!

Indeed endearing to see how these kittens have innocently offered a taste of my own childhood to my children!