The smell and colors of childhood..

With the rains, the temperatures have dropped down. It is not cold, but the morning and evening air has this chill. And instead of the fan, I need something to wrap myself for a cozy sleep. Therefore, I decided to take out the thin bedspread from the drawer. I kept away the book on the side table. A bit of reading before falling asleep. Then wrapped myself in the cozy warmth of the spread. ‘It smells like India. It smells like India.’ I exclaimed excitedly and loudly with a beaming smile. The warmth of the bedspread filling my heart. ‘It smells like Kolkata.’ ‘It smells like my mother’s cupboard.’ I wrapped it around me more tightly.

ZOO, bold red letters on a blue board welcome us to the world of cute colorful animal cartoons printed on the bedspread. Red elephant with a tiny birdee on its back. The ruler of the animal kingdom, the adorable king lion. The spotted giraffes and stripped zebras. One monkey hidden in a tree, two other playing below it. The coconut tree. A red flower. A blue one. Camel giving ride and boy enjoying the zoo. The big blue wet hippo and the baby red one. Three fishy in a pond. Another yellow flower. An almost hidden silly turtle. The smiling sun. And a colorful snake close by. A girl in red frock holding hands with her brother. A happy colorful adorable zoo.

The colorful zoo

I had eyes on this bedspread from when I was a child. My mother used to spread it only on some special occasions or when we had close friends over at our home. The colorful bedspread thus got associated with many special memories. And all along I dreamed, ‘when I will be big, I will have it for myself’. Finally, last April when I visited India, I fulfilled my ‘dream’. I brought back with me this colorful happy memory of childhood. It was long waiting in my mother’s cupboard with other bed linens. It had the smell of the cupboard. The smell that was always in the air whenever my mother took out a fresh bedspread. A smell of detergent, and old fabrics, and new ones, the cupboard, all together. A smell that brought back cherished childhood memories.

We were all playing around the whole day, as parents were busy enjoying themselves. The two family friends were at home and we were having one of our ‘crazy’ get-togethers. Maybe we were playing ‘catch me’ inside the house. Suddenly one jumped on the bed. The others automatically followed. We ran up from one side escaping the ‘catcher’, and ran down the other. Our little footprints were imprinted on the bedspread. As if, some children actually ran through the display of cute and interesting animals in a colorful zoo. Little dusty black hurried prints capturing a moment of our playful rush.

There is this picture in my mind. Brother and me on our tummy on the bed, and completely engrossed in the animal pictures on the spread. Every time we used to ‘discover’ something new. The monkey that is hiding in the tree, the little yellow flower we had not noticed before, the boy in blue on the back of the camel. Or we would simply look at the animals around us and admire them. I loved the hippo in blue sometimes, while most other times the red elephant was my favorite. And we counted the number of giraffes printed on the bedspread. There is this picture of a toy train carrying the dolphins around! I often imagined myself in the same train getting a ride through the zoo. Other times bhai and me wished to be the little brother and sister holding hands and looking around in wonder.

The other day Blaž said, ‘It has a lion too’. ‘Of course’ I replied with an enthusiastic smile. And I looked lovingly at the cute ‘king lion’, friendly and yellow. Then I spotted a blue bird on the back of the elephant, almost hiding. I noticed that there is a pair of blue and yellow flower, and I used to think there is only the red and blue pair!

I love this bedspread. It had always been my most favorite. It still is. This bedspread brings back to me the little girl with two ponytails fascinated by the world of colorful cartoonish animals. And with the happy surprise it brought along the smell of India, the smell of home.. The colors and fantasy of the little girl and the smell of childhood..