Cherishing the serene childhood in uncontaminated nature..

When I think of a spacious, peaceful bucolic house, the ancestral house of my maternal grandparents come to the front of my mind....

It was a small village, far away from the cacophony of  vehicular noise..

A  river meandered nearby....a deciduous forest flanked one side..

A group 20-25 houses occupied the are between the river and forest..........

My grandparent's house was large..in keeping with a large extended family...

Rooms on all four sides and a really huge courtyard in the middle....

A cowshed, a huge well and backyard sprawled behind it........

The edge of the courtyard was beautified with a variety of plants...a pergola draped in Rangoon creeper; cotton rosemallow with baby pink blooms; very fragrant orange jasmine (Murraya sp.)..balasam and marigold flowers...I don't remember the others....

A sacred basil in one corner for worship purposes..

On summer nights, 20-25 cots were laid out in the courtyard..no fan, no cooler, no AcC was ever needed..

A good sleep was ensured under the dark, starry nights...with forest fragrance-laden fresh air...no motor whirring noises...

Most of the vegetables for lunch and dinner came frm the backyard garden...moringa leaves, lemon, mushrooms, peas, tomato, onion.......

Also, fruits like papaya, jackfruit, guava, mango, pomegranate..

Fish from the river.............rice from own field...

Electricity was there...TV too was there....but no phones...no invasion to privacy by buzzing and ringing like now-a-days..

With cousins we would venture into the woods...collecting date palm fruits, jamuns, mangoes, East Indian ebony fruits (kendu)...
We would see the old figs, laden with fruits....a mob of birds would be devouring those bounty..

Sometimes, we used to see turtles, even elephants....

The heady smell and sweet sound of of mahua flowers falling from the trees ...crows cawing nearby....egrets on the shore of muddy ponds....playing on the river sandy shores with cousins..

Where are those days??? I miss sorely......feeling sad because those time will never come for future generation to enjoy..,,mankind has destroyed it..

At last the memories can not die..