I am 10 years old, live in a Railway quarter in a Government colony with my parents. My father is an engineer in the Railways. Our quarter is surrounded by lots of empty lands that have been transformed into a beautiful garden by the hard work of Chameli Lal, our caretaker.
In the front part of the garden, there are flower beds of a variety of flowers, from roses to jasmines. The series of tuberose planted around the sitting area gives a magnificent look to the entrance of our house. There is a massive tree of creep jasmine always covered with white flowers over the greeny leaves that give a beautiful look altogether. There are two trees of Boganvilia flowers covering the entrance gate, one light pink in colour and another light orange. When these two coloured flowers mixed over the entrance, it gives a feeling of a festival of colours spread all around.
There is a big swing made of steel in the center of the right side at the front. My father has installed the swing for all of us. Initially, I feared to sit on the swing but my sister, who is younger to me, is fearless and play with it. I generally watch others to ride on the swing. When it rains, the sound of the water dropping on the swing makes a lovely sound that I love to hear. My feet still don’t touch the ground but I am waiting for the day when it will. However, this swing is my friend.
One more friend of mine is there in the garden. It’s a vast shadowy guava tree whose branches are spread in all directions, as if it wants to hug everything and everyone in the surrounding. When it is covered with ripe guavas, a flock of parrots comes together to eat them, their song and chaos bring the garden to life. At that moment, the young leaves, light branches overloaded with riped guavas of various shapes and sizes, green parrots fighting among themselves with their bright red beaks to get them first, gives a magnificent look to the giant covering one entire corner of our house.
The backyard of the garden has a series of banana trees lined up as ten players stood forward in one line as defenders, and when the sun sets behind those banana leaves, it becomes picturesque. The garden as a whole gives completeness to our house as if every plant, every tree, all birds and butterflies that come here every day provides a feeling of a complete family to me and my emptiness. My joy and my sorrow dance through every leaf and every petal of flowers. I never feel colourless because of the bright colours spread across my entire garden. The fragrance of the flowers, the smell of the earth fills the mind and the soul with joy and happiness from dawn to dusk.
© Spondon Ganguli