If I had a million rupees I would buy the house, a massive bunglow that stood in front of our crumbling one and cast long shadows. I would break it down so that it could stop casting shadows since sunrise. From the day it was built , I hated it. Long verandas, large windows, gardens and even a fountain. I could not find fault with the people who lived there, a retired couple had purchased the large plot many years ago at very cheap rates. My uncles used to play football here when they were in their teens. The original land belonged to my family, my grandfather's cousin brother. When he died childless he gifted it to my eldest uncle. My uncle sold it as he needed money for treatment of a rare blood condition his only daughter had.

That daughter is now married with a pair of twins and the price he got for the land was very fair by those days' standard, I reluctantly knew.

The thing about the elderly couple is that they did not speak the local tongue or English. They have some children in the house too, who now play where few years ago, I would jump in climbing the low boundary walls and play cricket. Every Sunday's they have gentle tea parties , where I would meet my then girl friend. She left the town, suddenly. I am stuck here to this land. Other than the land my uncle sold, most of the other land is ours. Problem is those are all agricultural lands. I can not build a house there of such beauty as the one infornt of me and not plant grains. One did not misuse fertile land for building houses. I will need to stay in our old shabby house and manage with repairs and look after crops till I die. Legacy .. can be a bondage and I am realising that. Most of my friends could move out of the town but me as the only male child of my generation, can not dream of leaving the land. Somehow I loved the land and no compliants on the house, but I hated the house. How dare did someone...