Building Castles of Sand
Life is full of seasons
and the most beautiful among them
is the season of childhood.
As a kid, we always wished
to grow old and be responsible,
to live on our own, to make decisions,
to end the phase of being immature,
to lead, to earn and enjoy life.
But, with the passage of time
do we realize how the filthiness of this world
molded within us and how, the innocence
kept on fading. About how relations became
weak and how laughter became seasonal.
And during adulthood,
do we recognize, the beauty of childhood-
when we were more joyful,
and how our friend’s victory
brought us true happiness, isn’t it?
It is during moments of despair,
that we reminisce our younger days
and laugh over trivial matters
because nothing was ever worth cherishing
than those days of childhood.
In today’s world, I see,
that competition and success has taken over
the simple pleasures of life-
families ruined, childhood destroyed, innocence slaughtered
and young minds tamed to become the victims of dogma.
And when I see that happen,
a sigh of content encompasses me,
for having lived a wonderful childhood
whose beautiful memories still visit
my thoughts to enlighten my mood.
I remember how in childhood,
we used to visit the parks every weekend-
me and my cousins would always
play fearlessly on the swings and slides
and make figures and castles in the sand.
The happiness of getting dirty in the mud was ecstatic,
to turn those lifeless grains of sand
and bring life into them
through shapes and castles
was indeed blissful and serene.
But, today, seldom, do I see
the parks filled with the laughter of children
or the streets engulfed in innocent playfulness.
For the world is marching towards a broken perfectness-
of lives with missing childhood memories.
Why the world and relations
have turned so cruel
that they kill the innocence
of a child, to simply make them an apt piece
of the big jigsaw called ‘perfectness’?
Will we ever realize that
when we would be draped in weakness and wrinkles,
our success won’t make us smile
but the faded memories of childhood will,
for those are the days of our past which were ever so beautiful, isn’t it?
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AKA The Versatile 