down memory lane

It's been years since i moved out from the place where i'd spent my formative years, my childhood, leaving behind a significant part of myself, lending myself to the character of that place.My friends,my school, the streets, the garden and the school where i studied everything left behind forever.I haven't been able to find the same pleasure, same magic, same wonder in my new residential neighbourhood, everything looks so staid so unpleasant like an eyesore.I feel in an alien land, though i am in just another neighbourhood.Maybe it's what i've left behind that arouses such feelings, maybe it's just my old self that forgets to accept the new change in my life.
There are times when memories flood my mind, and i end up paying a visit to the place that doesn't belong to me anymore.There is a sweetness in the pain of remembering the happy past, the days spent playing street cricket, where every match seemed like the end of the world, where daily life was an adventure, crazy incidents being a way life.Precious time idled away in useless chit chat, seemed so wonderful than and the more so now.Quarrelling,fighting and getting upset with friends and than making up with a game of football, or cricket or just about anything.The eager anticipation of Divali so that one could unleash one's crazy antics, the bonding over ladoos, the time spent jointly ogling at the neighbourhood cutey, wow was it some fun, holi heightened our sense of euphoria and our mischeviousness, hitting the older residents with balloons and the younger ones with frozen balloons, never getting caught doing that, everything just exists know in memories.The place is the same, young kids still play street cricket, still chit chat,but my life has changed for the better or worse, the friends are still there but time has brought a transformation in each of them, And all that has been left behind are a lifetime of memories, to reminisce, to savour and to ponder over.