My grandparents lived in Tezpur, a town in Assam, in a beautiful bungalow with many rooms. Their garden was always filled with the most colourful butterflies. When I was little, I would catch the small white ones, close them in a jam jar, watch them flutter about, and then open the lid and let them fly away. They were my only friends on those long, slow summer days.
One afternoon, Ma's sharp call for lunch broke up my game. I left the jam jar on the courtyard steps, and ran inside for my meal. I forgot about the jar. I forgot about the little white butterfly still fluttering inside. When I came back, my butterfly wasn't fluttering any more. It was as still as the afternoon.
I remember sitting on the stairs cradling the glass jar for a long, long time. And I remember, for the first time, feeling the heavy weight of responsibility about an irreversible sadness.
Empty jam jars still make me sad.
~~~
Extremely touching!
ReplyDelete- Soumya
yes, it's strange, the things that stick :)
ReplyDeleteYour writing is emotional, I feel it.
ReplyDeleteSo moved by your writing and photography,I instantly became your follower.Loved the brown post too.Hop into my space sometimes and hope you like what you see too. :)
ReplyDeleteOh, wow. Pia, what you wrote resonated to one of my childhood memories; coincidentally, it also happened in grandpa's place.
ReplyDeleteVery touching.
This made me cry :( I think now empty jars will make me sad too.
ReplyDelete@ Love and other Spices: Thank you so much for stopping by, and for your lovely comment! I'll certainly make my way to your blog :)
ReplyDeleteAh Annapet, what a strange memory to have in common. But beautiful in a way :)
Soma, thank you for such a heartfelt comment.
thanks nashira! your touching comments always appreciated :)
ReplyDeleteYou certainly learned a sense of responsibility quite early. I used to play with cricket, but luckily never had such a sad accident with them.
ReplyDeletelacaffettierarosa: i know, hard little lessons :) but i'm glad i learnt it early though.
ReplyDeleteThere is something sad about an empty jam jar, with time and breakfasts gone by and all that, but this has just made them even sadder! :( Emma
ReplyDeletei guess we'll just have to make some jam and fill them all up, emma :)
ReplyDelete