Childhood Memories - notes

One of the earliest memories of Ratnagiri and more specifically of my childhood home are of the sprawling coconut "orchards" which no longer exist. It was even before I left for college that these gardens were cut down to make place for humans, so it wasn't much of a shock to see them this time around, yet sometimes I do think about the simpler times when I was a little kid and my parents were a young couple trying to make it in a new town. Ratnagiri back then was extremely quiet. We had many playgrounds before. We kept changing our place to play as every ground was eventually sold to give place for some project, till I finally left. I wonder how kids growing up today perceive Ratnagiri. Is this town still a serene little hamlet where kids roam around in shorts or has social media bewitched kids these days such that they don't even cry about not having playgrounds? Ever at the precipice of exciting change, a young man in his twenties doesn't always look back. Yet once in a while life makes us stop and go back to our roots and it's these times when I cling to the simpler lives we lived what now feels ages ago.

Tamaghna Chaudhuri 

Comments

  1. Arna book reading group3 July 2025 at 06:55

    Trees which used to look gigantic and buildings which were always over shadowing our vision appeared inconspicuous as we grew up. Similarly the landscape of our problems changed.

    ReplyDelete

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