of a time spent long ago

A friend sent me a photograph from back home in the morning. As the picture assumed clarity, I wasn't really sure what came to my mind. I did not look at any object in the picture particularly yet the whole picture seemed to talk to me about so many things. So many memories of my childhood. Of a time I had spent at a rented house in Kottayam till the age 6.Memories of it are very very vague, but stories that spin around those memories were and are re counted with fresh clarity. I was nicknamed Shobana(a renowned dancer and actor) by the house owner who used to get me roasted peanuts in newspaper cones in the evenings. (Maybe that's the reason why I love roasted peanuts so much even today)
I was finicky with food as a kid. Amma tells me that she had to roam around the whole neighborhood introducing birds and trees and insects to me, in order to feed me. At that time I felt that whatever was cooked in the neighbor's home looked and tasted so delicious. I have clear memory of my six(?)year old self mixing the fiery red fish curry with the soft yellow tapioca served at our neighbor's house. I don't remember the house or the faces of the guests, but I can still feel the food that my little fingers played with years ago. Maybe my love for fish could be traced back to those times- With good water bodies around, fish was a daily affair. Women spent more than half of their lives cutting, cleaning and cooking fish, that too a variety of them- fried, curried, stewed and coconut gravied.
Years later when I visit those places, I don't feel connected to it because so many things have changed. The images that have not yet assumed the sepia dust are the only reminders of a time spent long ago.