LANTANA BUSHES

                 Our street at my village Raikia was overgrown with thickets and brambles in the 1970s.It had only one fair-weather road that remained soggy and impassable most of the seasons. The lantana bushes

 along the road were abloom with red flowers most of the time in a year and were laden with shining black plums which were edible and sweet. We children  while playing in the street would pluck the plums in handfuls and savoured them . We had a conviction that nothing would happen to us. If birds of different species feasted on the plums ,why not us ?

                While looking for our hand-made volley-ball that sometimes got lost in the labyrinth of the bushes I had injured myself many times with the unkind scratches of the plants and had seen blood oozing out of the wounds. Sometimes ,our friends would crawl deep in to the bushes to explore the mysterious world of the small birds that built their nests there to protect themselves from the prying eyes of the predators. I had seen many of the local people brushing teeth with a lantana twigs in the morning to gain therapeutic benefits. However, gone are the days now. No more do I see those bushes anywhere. Our street road is now a macadamized one.

( Writer- Dr.Pradeep Kumar Nayak )