No Pain Is Greater

It feels good to wake up early. The hardness of the ground beneath my back is not comfortable. It’s not exactly a rocky patch, but not very soft or warm either. I might as well go out for a walk and see the sunrise. I am sure it colors the sky in the same way as it did, three decades ago.

I notice the changes which have influenced the village. The total area under cultivation has increased, but increased prosperity has also brought in those ugly machine monstrosities. The charm of watching farm animals and lovely maidens doing a honest day’s job has disappeared.

And then, I see a face which has remained etched in memory. She looks jaded with the advent of age, and added pounds.

“Hi, there … good to see you here….. I’m returning to the city today, to be with my daughter. I’m going to be a grandmother soon.” She winks cheerfully, but is unable to transmit the cheer.

I think of my lonely bachelor’s pad in the city, where I have a good job and an enviable bank balance, and then at my ancestral house here. There is no pain greater than imagination being ruined.