Arrival Of Summer

Summer, really, truly, arrived today, all those years ago, when we were kids in school.

Dressing up in new clothes, packing two whole bags of clothes, we were ready to enjoy life at the fullest now that exams were over and there was no studies for the next two months. Life began today, all those years ago. Summer, really, truly arrived today, all those years ago.

With the heat of the sun on the head yet no worries about anything at all, no stress, no anxiety, no sadness, adulting felt so distant and so untouchable.

Mangoes cut by naniji, walking-running to the nearby market to get kulfi for her and us from the money she gave us, reading comics all afternoon and then going to seach for new ones in the evening, sitting on top of the slide under the banyan tree, scaring kids off by telling ghost stories of that ghost tree, swinging so fast that I thought I would fall off, collecting cotton pods and playing until dark, everything was so uncomplicated and easy. Life truly lived. Summer, really, truly.

Today, nothing feels the same. Naniji is not here, but the mangoes and kulfi still remind me of her. Comics are turned into novels, slides are too small, ghost tree doesn't exist anymore maybe, can't really swing that fast now I would really fall down, cotton pods are too difficult to find and we don't play anymore, life plays us. Summer, not really. Life moved so quickly with so many uncontrollables that it doesn't feel real at all. It's too complicated with too much adulting and so many decisions.

Can I go back to the previous summers please? The one in mid-2000s specifically.