amusing myself

my favorite place in the house was the window sill. i probably thought about a lot of things sitting there but could not remember what. so there i sat for hours, looking at the world from a window, watching neighbors walk by. sometimes i read a book... other times i just wriggled my feet till i fell asleep.

the best part though, were rainy afternoons when the streets would be empty and the leaves a clean green. i remember counting the raindrops as they fell onto the pavement. one had to be imaginative to amuse oneself.

there were more trees then--more open spaces with greens. on rainy days, i would take my little umbrella and with my basket, walk leisurely in the rain. i must've seemed like a strange vision, walking in the rain as if the world belonged to me.

there was a wide, vacant land a few meters from our house. i think it used to be a rice field--(now an open garage used for heavy equipment machineries) there were a few rice stalks growing in the small body of water at the side of the elevated area. we flew kites there during the summer but on drizzly days, it was an even more fascinating place. there were several aratiles trees teeming with round, red fruits and a variety of other plants and vegetation. i would pluck one leaf of each kind and examine them carefully before putting them into my basket.

further across the field were vines with edible (for i am still alive) fruits resembling a miniature passion fruit--the ripe ones turn yellowish and tastes like it. i also remember one clinging plant with scattered pink flowers (coral vine, i think) so pretty i used to put them in my hair. when my basket is full i would then saunter back home, pleased and contented with my loot.

the rest of the afternoon would find me back on the window sill with feet dangling and face pressed on the grills, silently wishing that the next afternoon would again be one rainy session.