A far cry...!!

I usually don't prefer to live on past.Yet,I believe, one could't live without being

haunted by that very past ! So here I am ....

We had long holidays in our school during Christmas and it was our father's wish

to send us to Deoghar where we had a beautiful house surrounded by garden. De-

oghar was a much much quieter place during those days with few houses scattered 

here and there.Dhuki Mali -the caretaker of the property-took good care of the house

including the beautiful garden-full of trees and flowers.The house -then known as

Sripatinath Deb's House-was just at the corner of Bompas Town and not far from the

station.

 Among other things I particularly remember of an afternoon when I was sitting near the 

window watching lines of trees just outside the boundary wall of our house.A madding

wind was steadily and slowly blowing throughout the day.I was around 10 to 12 years 

of age-the perfect age for day dreaming. Suddenly a high pitched voice of a bird made

me attentive and motionless.It was a full throated song that flowed  along the wind -up

and down up and down !!I tried to locate the bird but failed. I kept trying and trying and

after several failures I finally saw the wee bird. It was perched right at the top of a tall

tree. The wind tilted it's plumes and the branch swayed  heavily.Little did it bothered the

bird who kept on whistling...keeping me mesmerised ! It went down..down..down into the

core of my heart AND THERE IT REMAINED ...for more than 60 years !