Random Thoughts

Autumn songs

by Ranjita Biswas | @twfindia 16 Oct 2026, 06:03 am

Time was when autumn’s arrival meant blue sky, cotton wool clouds and Seuli flower’s aroma to herald the sarat kaal- and advent of the Puja season too. Alas! Thanks to climate change, or whatever, time- a-changing. The monsoon pattern is morphing, climatologists opine, deciding to stay over a little longer.  So, it’s rain, rain, and rain, going on unrelentingly with no sign of the mellifluous season and determined to spoil the mood of festive shoppers and puja organisers as well.

Ah, autumn -the ‘Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness…’ as John Keats wrote -where is it hiding these days in the melange of seasons?

Fortunately, this year I have glimpsed, rather found, Keats’ mellow colours while travelling in Norh America. Autumn, or Fall, as the citizens prefer to call it, is truly a grand time to experience nature’s beauty as it gets ready to step into winter. Gone are the Spring flowers- the Cherry Blossoms, the Tulips, and the Chrysanthemums are in their last legs. But why moan? The Fall is there, something to compensate for. The green leaves slowly turn yellow, rust, orange, ochre etc. to warm the cockles of your heart. Stand under a tree, and the leaves gently fall over your head forming a yellow crown. Perhaps that’s why it’s called the Fall.

Then suddenly, looking through the car window at the distant hills -like a painting by an Impressionist in love with warm colours, I inexplicably feel sad. A sadness emanating from the thought that the best years of youth are gone, as also many expectations that coloured the first steps into the adult world- and now have to accept that you can’t turn the pages anyhow; it’s time to wait for the end to come, like the leaves waiting for the snow to cover them soon.

Then I see the displays in front courtyards of many houses. With skeletons and pumpkins. Oh yes, it’s Halloween time too. The human skeleton look-alikes holding onto the colourful pumpkins in many sizes perhaps want to tell that the end comes to all of us, but with promises of reinventing in other colours, other avatars. Life goes on in cycles after all. Why not enjoy this mature show by nature while it lasts?