Loss of innocence

Turning the pages of the old family album the person becomes nostalgic and remembers the happy old days. While I was at home during the semester break I was searching some photos and came across some old family albums. I turned around and found some of my childhood pictures. The pictures of a small boy with a broad smile emerged in front of me. When I compare my childhood self with the present state I find a remarkable difference. In the mirror I can see a post graduate engineering student with spectacles, black eyes due to excessive use of computers and frequent late nights. If I post a before and after photos like the gyms providing the weight loss programs, it will be a disappointing advertisement. In my childhood I used to draw caricatures, sketches and used to paint. My parents also regularly encouraged me by enrolling myself to an art school and arranging a private tutor which ever was convenient. When ever any guests used to visit our house I was promptly asked to bring on my sketch book and display my sketches (how silliest sketches it may be) to the guests. It was a matter of pride for our family. In jeypore my art teacher taught me how to make a hand made greetings card and I was thrilled by the concept. In our younger days when ever December comes our job was to make greetings cards for all our relatives and post them. Those greetings cards were highly appreciated. My family always encouraged me and my sister on our painting. My father used to buy different books related to drawing, water painting, and oil painting and give it to us. Once he brought a book by famous cartoonist R K Laxman and gave it to me. As I was weak in colors but good in pencil I used to copy those cartoons and make greetings for the New Year. But with the passage of time the hand made greetings died a silent death. In my younger days I was also taking singing classes but as the sketching the singing also faced a premature death. So with the passage of time every thing changes but the loss is substantial. The loss of identity, the loss of smile, the loss of innocence is the major losses and can never be compensated.