I felt very lazy on this June Sunday morning. Nothing like lounging in the bed, looking at the ceiling, not exactly admiring the crisscrossing lines up there, but just lying down- with a blank mind- blissful. The blazing sunshine spilled through my window, and this colourful spill of light brought a smile to my face. Suddenly, a cloying fragrance of yesteryears came from somewhere and settled on me. The light slanted in thick, nebulous rays through the window, in a very tantalizing manner. I walked towards the window, my eyes fell on an old woman sitting in the shade of a tree in her garden, lost in thought. I had often seen that woman in that new flat, opposite our house. But within no time, a face superimposed itself on the woman’s face. Ah, it was my granny’s. There was a wistful look on her face, haloed by the jewelled light.

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The old woman completely melted away, and it was now my granny, I was looking at, transfixed.  Was she thinking of the times when granddad, as a tall, strapping youth of twenty, had waved to her, for the first time from the kadal*, while she, a fifteen-year-old, sat, blushing in the zoon dab*? Or the time, when attired in green, hand in hand, with grandad, she had meandered through the pine forests, spectacular, mystical and overpowering, huffing up steep slopes, then suddenly letting go of his hand, and galloping gazelle-like to merge with the lush, verdant greenery? Were her eyes, hunting for the silver lines in the dark clouds covering the sky?  Was she recalling the time when two, youngsters sat on a gnarled log of wood, after having etched their names on the log? Maybe she was remembering the autumnal maple leaves crunching under their feet, singing songs of resurrection? Or, perhaps recalling the time when she had pointed excitedly towards a blue- eared kingfisher perched majestically on the railing of the crystal blue Dal Lake, and grandad, then a handsome young man, had smiled indulgently at her. 
 

Blue kissed blue
wavelets of dappled silver
rippled in memory 
 

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*Kadal: A Bridge in Kashmiri
*Zoon Dab:   A classic example of Kashmiri architecture, it used to be a balcony in the uppermost floor of the house, from where people would see the moon.  [Zoon, meaning moon, and Dab meaning balcony.