It’s Winter

Delhi.

Approaching winter.

You are reluctant to wake up from the warmth of your blanket.

You wish you can sleep for some more time.

You believe you are still a schoolboy.

You wish it is summer vacation.

You wonder what to choose today. Comic books or video games or VCR?

Finally, you settle for comics.

Graphic pages of the western. Heroics of the superheroes.

Adventure. Colours. Images.

You flip through the pages with one hand.

A ripe mango in the other.

Occasional bites on the yellow flesh while the sticky juice runs down your hand.

You hear your friends yelling at you from the street.

You charge into the summer socked streets.

You play as if it is breathing.

You sweat.

The games you play are clothed with the smell of fresh grass and fertile soil.

Either there is no tomorrow, or it will just pass like today.

Summer vacation.

Beep. Beeep. Beeeep....

Wake up.

It is not summer now.

This is a different season.

This is winter.

This is a different place.

This is a different time.

This is a different world.

This is a different life.

Or you can say it is a different juncture in life.

Beeeep.... Beeeeepp...

Wake up.

You are no more a school kid.