Chalks and Friendship Songs (A Memoir)

My School

1.
 Loitering sans aim, and watching the drops of rain
Deepening the colors of my shirt, takes me
Back to an unreachable past where all senses
Of me still remain eternally spotless!

Days of balancing on slipping railway tracks,
Having one hand held firm at the flapping umbrella
And the other placed on unyielding shoulders,
With an assurance, matchless, and a sanctified
Feeling of enlightenment you get once you know life!

Now I walk along the same old tracks,
The stations where we sat forever, happy,
Seems to have grown dusted and alone.
A train scurry past, splashing water all about,
And the umbrella flies away with me onto the
Fearsome winds. I realize for an instant how,
Those calm shoulders eased even the fury of nature.

2.
 Hunting for chalks beneath teacher's desk,
Flinging them merrily at passing girls,
We always ended up pointing each other,
Memories of love began at warfares,
Many would also end with a chill,
But we raged on with an intense fervor,
And went home proud with hands stained with chalks!

O, those classrooms, unmatched by any playgrounds!
Where balls made of paper and cloth sped past,
Angry teachers, where we rolled on like dogs
Fighting, booing, and augmenting insanity,
In those small rooms where we met erudition,
We lived, breathed and looked out together through
The windows and happily knitted up dreams!

All dreams remain in oblivion now,
As I walk on the same old paths,
With only memories to keep me by.

3.
 The unending talks, the fast moving time,
The meaningless fears, and welcomed fests
Where we hung on sans sorrow as long as we wished.
Spells of rue when a friend cease to talk,
Those awkward moment when he still makes you laugh,
And a lifetime to cherish when reconciliation visited,
O, such were the days when you were truly loved.

Tears drench my clothes as much as the rains now,
Insatiable as hers when I saw her cry, the promise
That I made to myself to never let another tear line
Her face, still resonates in those amaranthine corridors,
I could hear her tones, I could hear her blatant laughs,
I stand by that corridor, alone now, with memories
Falling into my heart like those bewildered raindrops.

The timorous heart still continues to pound,
I remember those miniscule seconds when
Our eyes met in between, and the smile
When the realization diffuse that it was not
Just me, who felt the excessive flow of love.

When the call from the heavens reach my ears,
I shall remember that day, when she took my note,
And wrote, 'En mi Amigo!', and when I wrote
With stuttering hands, 'Forever' underneath it!

Notes
Dedicated to my 10th std classmates, 12th std classmates, and especially to Vivek PM, Arjun M and Aparna Prabhakaran, for giving me moments I would cherish for a lifetime!