WHEN WAS the last time you looked out the window while traveling the length of the NLEX (North Luzon Expressway)? Do you recall a memory from your younger days, spending the hours ticking by on the bus, van, or car, playing with traveling companions a game of "bird/carabao, cow, goat sighting" (and, for the imaginative, spotting even the ants crawling on the carabao's back or the flies buzzing incessantly round its nostrils and ears)? The landscape is changing so fast, there may come a time when even the ricefields and sugarcane fields will be no more. The long abandoned arable lands are now taken on a new leash and entirely new forms of plantations are taking over.
With September now past, mid-October approaching, most if not all look forward to seeing the lighted colorful lanterns displayed as a perenial reminder that Christmas indeed is just less than 80 days away. To this day, I still wait with bated breath to see Nature's way of signalling the onset of the Christmas season. It is knowledge orally passed on for the nth time from the wisdom of our grandparents.
"Apo (grandchild), lawen mu la reng palat. Ustung ikit mu puputi ing marangle, uling makabulaklak na la ngan deng sampagang palat, kanitimalyari na kang milang aldo, uling yapin na ing umpisa ning panaun Pasku."
Tutu pin ing amanung likwan ng Apu, gang pakacomputer na ngan hora por hora pati ing pamandatang at pamaglako ning uran, bagyo at miyaliwang delubyo, maski pa nanung pamibayu ing datang ning kalieldo at kauran, emu na kailangan lawen ing kalendaryu uling alang pasubali, kalub ning Oktubre kayagnan ning amiam, pupuge at mamayagpag la ring marangle, tiktak king kaputi king sampaga ding palat. Nukarin mu man ibaling ing panimanman mu, gang emu mu man buring aminan, ating kislut king pusu ing lagu da reng marangle. Balamu lulutang a makababang ulap king gabun kekatamung daramusakan.
At dagdag na pang Apu, "Pakapakiramdaman mu ing tiririt da ring tarat, uling ustung palapit na ing naval, bulan "bre" (Septiembre, Oktubre, Disyembre ), mialiwang ayup sususalpo keti kekatamu, dakal lang makisulip."
Wapin naman, nung tune tang mapagmasid at matalas pakiramdam king mialiuang sigla makapatulug, damdaman mula, at elamu masigla, nune magkanta la ring tarat. Kayaliwa na king balu da ring kayanakan ngeni na pati makatua, mangapautu---makiki "boom tarat tarat." Palak nang kasanting king panimanman ing lawen la reng sulasulapo ayup Tarat. Ing karelang tiririt makabage indat iwage dala deng karelang pakpak.
But how many more years do our children have to enjoy the sight of the cogon flowers swaying with the wind? How soon will the cogon grass grow unfettered before the concrete plantations take over and claim all lands as far as the naked eye can see?
When the trees become scarce, when the birds lose their wild habitat, when the wind blows encumbered by the mushrooming concrete jungles and plantations---that is the time we will need a constant reminder of the changing of the seasons, because by then:
Ala ng palat, pati aslag ning aldo maplas na king balat.
Eno masigla reng tarat, uli da ring tau alang masabal a dapat.
Nune pa ngeni, kapilan ta pa kaya mimulat?
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