Reflections under the Marigold Tree

The Marigold Tree in question is in Golf Green- a quiet residential area in South Calcutta. It was in the callow years in college that we experimented with mind expanding substances. The late evening trip to the dhaba next to GT Road seemed magical. Finding a spring in every step. Sometime just sitting still and feeling time slow down. Much later before the onset of middle-life, sitting under the marigold tree in smoke filled dew laden Calcutta nights a few puffs felt good. Revisiting some of the little joys discovered in adolescence-The November Rain Guitar Riff, Pink Floyd's albums, Mohiner Ghoraguli. Then unsteady steps make way back home, as large barn owls from the golf club flutter past. Mild winter nights, dark silhouttes of ramshackle buses of route 234 lined up against the golf club boundary wall. Rumali roti being made at the snack shop at the road crossing. Stench of Urine, dark shapes of idle young men at the dimly lit tea-shop.Feeling a vague combination of loss and longing!!