Lip-Stuck Memories

There is a pet theory of mine, which , manifests itself in many posts on my prose blog Gappa.  It has to do with my conviction, that all our body organs/parts are living tissue and contain a "thinking" part, a local brain. 

And so when a friend in her middle forties suddenly decided to start wearing lipstick after many years, and her friends rallied around, it suddenly occured to me, that the lips would probably have something to say , given their amazing memory and four decades of dedicated uninterrupted service.

And so, as is the current custom, here they are , saying "a few words"....

First in Marathi, and then in English....

झालरीचे झगे घालून गिरक्या मारण्याच्या वयात एका रखरखीत दुपारच्या उन्हात सवनग्ड्यान बरोबर खाल्ल्लेली जांभळ, जाम्भळी जीभ ओठावर फिरवून खोटे लिपस्टिक , चोरून खाल्लेल्या विड्याने अप्रतीम रंगलेले ओठ , शाळेच्या स्नेहसंमेलनात नृत्यासाठी केलेला मेकप , आणि रात्री चुपचाप लिपस्टिक आणि रूज न काढता झोपणे, आणि मग कधीतरी पेटिकोट मध्ये बसून, आंब्याचा रस काढायला "मदत", आणि चेहर्यावर चाटता यॆइल असा सोनेरी स्वाभाविक मेकप. झगे, साड्या , स्मृती जुन्या झाल्या , पण अनेक दशके बघितलेले ओठ , अचंबित होतात आणि म्हणतात , "आज काल ओठावर जीभ फिरवली कि भलतीच चव येते ; ती जांभळे , ते आंबे, ती करवंद , आणि ते विडे , आणि हो, दूध ;ती चव काही वेगळीच होती …. "

The age of twirling around in frocks with frills, jamuns enjoyed with friends sitting in the loft, on hot dry summer afternoons and a tongue secretly licking the lips hoping the color sticks; A paan surreptitiously chewed and celebrated for the amazing lip and tongue pigment; Makeup at the school's Annual Day play, and hurrying to sleep with the lipstick and rouge before facing  a maternal glare; And then an offer to help squeeze mango juice, made sitting ready in a petticoat, creating golden makeup on an already happy face . The frocks, petticoats and memories have aged, but the lips , in non stop action over decades, ask in consternation, "Why is there a weird taste these days, when the tongue licks us , and whatever happened to the taste of jamuns,karwandas, mangoes, paan, and yes, milk ?"