Author: Avanti Sopory

Something inside has not grown,

Child in me, still forlorn,

 

What was sowed never reaped,

Alas! Only abhorrence was heaped,

 

What got started never ended,

Innocent friendship was dented,

 

Birthday cakes, wafers, candies perished,

Before memories could be cherished,

 

Fields, farms, friends was my abode,

One dark night thrown like a truckload,

 

Friends turned foe, goaded by grown-ups,

Coaxed to follow, just like little pups,

 

That moment, I lost my childhood,

Out of my hearth, with others in wild wood,

 

Night swallowed my innocence in its girth,

Valley is no more, but only a place of birth,

 

Brood long to see Mom’s childhood hideouts,

Homes charred, now location is also in doubt,

 

Moments of goodness, sealed in memory now,

Smeared, soaked with unbridled giggle and love,

 

Bring back my childhood, Bring back my Valley,

Bring back those times, when everyone was paly.