The metallic clang of the beautiful bronze bell signalling recess at school.The primitive sonorous ring of our ancient telephone.The painful screeching noise issuing forth from contact between the chalk and blackboard.The coaxing loving whine my favourite dog would court me with.The slow trickle of dirty water flowing down the steps of our narrow building corridors every once in a while the bai washed them.The little musical prelude that was played before "aamchi maati aamchi maanse"(or something like that) everyday on DD1. The looooong wistful siren which was sounded everyday at 6:30am for the Raymond factory workers as a cue to the end of yet another ardous shift and the dawning of yet another morning. The mellifluous notes of the bagpipe and the thudd of the drums which serenaded us every sports day. The piercing blow of the whistle which marked the beginning of every mass drill exercise. The loud bang with which my fourth floor home doors kept banging with every monsoon.The slight swish with which the cream curtains lazily swayed during warm summers. The sudden static and black and white shower of dots the TV would burst into every once in a while. The incessant kicks which were used to cajole my mum's first bike and then its slow sputtering to life..only to die out in a minute. The slight scratchy notes jumping from the letters being scribbled with apsara pencil in my notebook. The muffled sound of my smiley eraser incessently erasing digits from my maths book. The rattle of the spoon in my steel tiffin as my lunch basket swayed with every stride. The choked and suppresed bursts of laughter when we saw for the first time an anatomy of the human body in the fourth standard science text.
The terrifying buzz of deadening silence.The rustle of a new christmas dress.The echo of girly laughter resounding through labrinthine stone corridors. The corny rigtone of my first cell phone.The chaotic clatter of peak hour traffic jams.The humdrum voice of the lady cackling over the speakers at railway stations.The slow chugging of the local train as it approaches its destination.The rife voices of the vendors aboard a 6:11 fast. The haggard voices of working women.The joyful banter of idle college girls. The flirty whistles of roadside romeos.The swoosh of the broom as the early morning BMC worker sweeps the VT subway. The doodhwalla,the machiwalla,the pav walla,the bhaandiwalla and their bellowing cries. The plethora of audible,muffled,inaudible sounds which continue to resonate in some crevice of my memory....even if they die out in my city. I miss it all.
