Uncapped memories.....

I went to the store yesterday with one of my friends who wanted to get some shopping done. I just wandered around the store in my trademark style, checking out the stationary and wondering how on earth can a box of pencil colors cost 500 Rs/-
And then suddenly my friend ran up to me....clearly very excited about something.
She waved a orange and white can in my face "guess what this is?"
"A deo" I was confused as to what had her gettin all excited about a deo !!!!
"Its Cuticura yaaar.....remember? As kids we used to get Cuticura talc in the orange and white tins which used to rust too soon !!!! They have come out with deos now !! just check it out"
And she sprayed it on the back of my hand. A whiff of it....
Unknowingly my friend had uncapped a whole lot of memories bottled inside me.

Memories of spending the summer vacations in a big house which surprisingly never tired out my tiny feet....

Memories of sitting on the porch and listening to the roar of the sea while mom oiled my hair with freshly made coconut oil....

Memories of playing 'ludo' with my grandmother and howling at the top of my voice after losing the game.....

Memories of my uncle as he lifted me up to peep into the parrot's cage....and pulled me away the moment I put my little finger in for the parrot to bite....

Memories of eating the mango pickle which was always a little more salty to last longer...

Memories of the storeroom with creaky doors which had all the mangoes and jackfruits kept in it...and yet was too spooky for any of the kids to even attempt to enter it...

Memories of the entire family gathering together for a late-night game of cards...with the loser going to bed with an extra duty of making 'chai' for everyone next morning.....

Memories of walking to the beach just in time to say 'gotcha' to the sun hiding behind the ocean...and coming back home with a thin film of salt water and sand coating our tiny bodies...

Memories of evening prayers said in unison and touching 20 odd pairs of feet to seek blessings so that I might stand first in class...

Memories of a mirror with a wooden frame...part of my grandmother's dowry !!! watching myself in the mirror...combing my knotty hair with the comb which lost teeth faster than a child....and taking the rusty tin of Cuticura talc to transform myself into Snow White "mirror mirror on the wall...who's the fairest of them all"

Memories of old photographs hanging in the drawing room....looking down at us with approving glances....unhampered by the garlands that hung around them.....unseen unknown forefathers from a different era coming to life through black, white and sepia....

"Doesn't the smell remind you of childhood?", my friend had a dreamy look about her....
But I wasn't there to reply.....I was sitting on the porch in a farway place in the seaside house, under a flickering bulb....watching my grandmother cleaning the fish for the night's dinner !!!!