Love Book

Oct 8

I loved very much
that book on Botany,
I had put a coloured,
glazed cover on it,
and used to hold it on my chest,
as if my life was hidden in it,
the parrot
of old magical talisman stories...

It was true to some extent,
in that book
I had not only read Botany
but also my first lesson of love,
attached to each page
were moments of memories...

While collecting flowers
and leaves for my herbarium,
I didn't know when I started
making my own lovarium
by placing inside its pages
sweet roses, peacock feathers,
canteen bills, currency notes,
library cards
and a very special card,
that was a vibrant medium
of communication of love...

I used to keep that book
in a separate bag,
so that nothing would fall out of it,
other books were restless
used to look with anxious eyes
jealous of this bubbly book of mine,
but I was vulnerable
to my partisan whims...

Even now that book is with me
in a colorful cover
which brings a smile on my face
and its distinct fragrance
brings back those old memories
very swiftly from nostrils
to cerebrum and then to heart,
and I get tempted
to read it once again
from cover to cover...