I do remember...

Time...the only entity of the universe that is constantly changing. 

Remember when you were a child, playing in your mother's lap and your father content on seeing the ruckus? You grew up a little further, started going to a school; the first day in the school, when you saw your father leaving you behind in an unknown place, and the fear it created in your small heart. And suddenly the tears started flooding through your tiny eyes, and from nowhere small hands, as small as yours grabbed your shirt. Remember, that was the first friendship you had made in the world you had stepped into? Remember all those joys and jumps on the subsequent days when you met your newly made friend at school like every day? Remember the anxiety and sadness when this friend was absent from the class because of a flue?

 

You grew up a little further, and you started waiting eagerly for the summer vacations in the school. Remember the long journey in the trains, to meet your grandparents who were at the other end of the country you were staying? Remember all those walks and journeys you had with your grandparents? Those serene countryside, those temples and the ponds accompanying it, the Lotus bloom in the water bodies around your grandparents' house? The heaviness of separation from the grandparents when you were about to leave back to your city?

 

Do you remember the new session of the school after the vacations? New books, new uniforms, and sometimes new school bags? Remember the excitement, when you transition from a notebook written in pencil to a notebook written with ink? The fights with your friends and the throwing up of ink on the white uniform shirt and the thrashing from your mother for the spoiled shirts? The fear of the Unit tests which were scheduled every two months of the school session? 

You grew up further and finally you were at a stage of your life which decided what you want to do with your life. You were in your Matriculation year, and do you remember the fear instigated in you by your teachers, your parents, your relatives and the neighbors? Remember how you worked off days and nights for the mock preparations of the Matriculation exams by the school? Remember the anxiety when they handed over your Admission Card for the examination? And finally, the days and weeks of final preparation and the days of the exams when your father came to drop you off at the examination center? The anxiety on your parents face when you finish off the exams and came out of the examination hall and home? 

Meanwhile, do you remember how you were changing physically? Remember how a small border of mustache and hair started appearing on your face? Your voice started changing and became hoarse than the childish voice you had before? And how you started an interest in the people around of opposite sex? 

I hope you remember the classroom for the subjects you had chosen based on your marks in the Matriculation on contrary to the interests you had? Remember you thought you were becoming insane by solving heaps and heaps of problems in Physics, Chemistry, Maths and remembering the quirky names of the organisms and organs? Remember the first day when your eyes met hers, and you thought you have lost your sleep for her? Remember the days you spent with her during the school time and how eagerly you wait to meet her the next day in the school? Remember the glances you had on her when the teacher was lecturing on something and you glanced on her red cheeks and the blushing on her face? Remember the day when your mother came to know about this and an hour of lecture on moral grounds? I hope you also remember the last day of the school, when you met her the last time and the exam days after that on the School leaving certificate exams. Remember the day of the results, when you scored the highest marks in a subject, which you never imagined you could score and scoring a borderline score in your favorite subject? 

Do you remember the cold months of December, January when you get out early in the mornings to fetch milk for the household, covered from top to the toes with warm clothes? Do you remember, on one of those days you went with the moped your father had after locking in your parents at home who were still asleep? You might also remember dropping off your sister to school on those cold winters and the scorching summers on a moped your father had bought for you after a 2/3 days of mock hunger strikes. Do you remember the cat fights you had with your sister, when your mother mostly fed up with those fights locked you and your sister up in separate rooms?

Do you remember the first day of your college days? When your friend asked, why the heck did you chose something like Statistics & Mathematics together for grad? Do you remember how the three years of grad flew past, and you wondered where did the three years went? And then you started thinking what was coming next? 

And do you remember that was when you heard the term "Computer" for the first time. You decided to sit for a Post Grad course in Computers for another three years. I hope you also remember that since you had an interest in the subject, you had come out with a good score in the exams. And after a few months of struggle, you got a call from a Product firm, from a place far away from the place you were currently. 

And after few deliberations, you decided to travel down to the place. Remember the face of your mother, when you were leaving, far away from home? Remember how you felt, when you left the place forever, where you had spent all of your childhood, never to come back again? 

I, do remember, all these...