The Wonder Years

I was watching the final episode of “The Wonder Years” tonight, which, for a few moments, took me back home to the streets I grew up on. Reminded me of my own Winnie Cooper, Roopal Sharma I knew when I was in first grade and hadn’t thought of in a long long time. She lived right behind us in a big rental house at Rohtak.
May be some day I’ll get to relive those moments. For now, I’ll just hum to this ode I wrote to my childhood, the house I lived in until I was about 8 (which was later demolished to accommodate a new building), and to all chums that were separated long ago.

The Wonder Years

There once was a house, yes I still remember
Back in the days when I was a child
If I had a wish, I’d wish for the time
When I’d come home dreaming dreams so wild

Though it’s now come to a memory or two
I often think of the moments left behind
Playing in the sun, lying in the sand
Long summer nights and stars that were mine

They say growing up is more like a tale
You crawl till you cry ‘fore it all fades away
I look back with a glint in my eye
And wonder where the wonder years went away

Now I’m far away from the boy that I was
Who’d play till the evening shades turned to night
Sometimes I think I’m still just a child
Riding on dreams in the pale moonlight

And even after all the places I’ve seen
I never can forget that house that I knew
It seems I can feel the sounds and the smells
I wonder where those years just flew

Plays of my childhood still whisper in my heart
I’ve had my fill of laughter and tears
Sometimes I stop and stare at the stars
Wishing all the while for those wonder years.

Gautam Dhar
15 January 2006