Nostalgic Memories

My elder sister offers me an “atom bomb”.

She has just come from the temple.

The “atom bomb” stirs memory and desire.

It is not of the kind that devastated

Hiroshima and Nagasaki,

But a sweetening delicacy,

We all brothers and sisters,

Loved to share,

When brought from the local sweetmeat vendor,

Amidst all the noise and cacophony of the area around!

Note - Like other mufassil towns of the country, my native town of Chhapra in Bihar has also undergone a sea-change and the famous sweetmeat shop Shrikrishna Mishtan Bhandar (which we frequented during festive occasions of 1970s) is now no longer in existence but the nostalgic memories associated with the famous product named “Atom Bomb” sold by this shop haunt us all.