The Peacock Feather

When was the first time I touched a peacock feather? I don't remember. I was very young when Aai got 2 of them for me. She said we will keep it in the dictionary. It still is the biggest book I have. I think I have lost my first dictionary and the peacock feather too. But, I remember how I used to love looking for the feather in that book. I could touch and feel those colors. The feather had become older in that book. I would then fearing that my fingers could damage it, touch the feather even more lightly.

Whenver I used to find a beautiful rose petal or any oddly shaped leaf and did not know how I could keep it with me Aai used to ask me to keep it between the pages of a book..It is lovely to find some old petals in some old books. Pink tries to become red over the years. And, I dont remember that petal I had long kept in that book. The greens of the leaf reveal the lines on the leaf more explicitly.

For a long time now I haven't found any leaves in my pages. Over the years I guess I forgot the peacock feather and the joy it once gave me. I forgot those childhood petals. But, I am going to go back to that habit of collecting petals and keeping them safe the way Aai once long back taught me.