I will keep it simple with this one; it will all be about the natural life in my garden. And will mainly be photo-based, which I will keep adding from time to time…
I don’t know the name of these flowers..but I love them. And well..so do the butterflies!
I was standing right there, opposite to the mouth of the cave called Gaumukh (literally meaning ‘face of the cow’; attributed to its appearance), with the music of flowing water in my ears. It was coming from the stream by which I was standing, the stream which flowed out of the cave. After a few blank moments of just taking it all in, I bent down and put two fingers in the water. I had put them in only for a few seconds but that was enough to make them numb for about the following ten minutes. The water was COLD. But it felt good!
Backdrop: I can’t remember exactly when I started going to the riverside in my city, Kolkata. At times I did go there with others but most of the time I would just go alone in the afternoons and evenings and sit by myself by the Ganges (I was around 14 at the time). Sometimes I would watch people: the bustle of commuters waiting in queues to board the ferries in order to cross the river and get back to their families after a long day’s work; a child with wandering eyes holding his mother’s hand, probably a day out for him; the eternally busy tea vendors; a shy couple looking for a relatively quiet place. And a lot of times, I would simply look at the flowing water. I could never see through as the water remained muddy throughout the year, but it gave me a great sense of serenity. I can’t remember exactly when I fell in love with the Ganges.
And there I was, standing spellbound in front of its very origin!
The Ganges, or the Ganga (as we call it) is not only the heart and soul of Kolkata, just like any big river is for a city it flows through, but it also forms an essential life line in the northern parts of the Indian subcontinent as a whole. Going to the riverside always made me feel good, not necessarily jovial though, sometimes may be just thoughtful and reflective, but it always replenished me with some kind of positivity. Even the simple sound formed by the rhythmic soft splashing of the small waves against algae-adorned walls or ferry jetties had a very calming effect. In fact, that was one of my favorite things to do: I would buy a return ticket for the ferry and then, for hours, simply sit at the jetty while a lot of people appeared and disappeared; and when I felt like, I would get on a ferry and take an empty seat and sit there for a few crossings (the workers/officials on board didn’t bother), and I would just feel the cool, moist wind on my skin and my hair, deeply taking in the smell of the Ganges. And after I had my fill, I would get down at the jetty, sit there some more and then finally move out. I LOVED doing that!
So when I stood there in front of that cave, I didn’t know what to do. Though it’s not like I really wanted to do something either. Just being there, at that very place at that very moment, was quite magical in itself. An extremely fulfilling and humbling experience. Time didn’t matter. Neither did technology. Nature meant everything. Life meant everything!
And I did come back from that trip a changed person. It was my first hiking trip as well; and my first real interaction with the Himalayas. Ah..the Himalayas!! But well, that’s another story!
The above photo was a taken a few years back during an evening by the Ganges in Kolkata.
(I am sincerely sorry for not being able to put up images from the Gaumukh hike; I don’t have any! I didn’t have a camera when I went there. But I do promise to get photos during my next trip there, which I am planning for next year!)
The light is changing quite drastically, winter is so near. Oh..how I love winter! When the afternoon light touches your skin, it doesn’t glare off your eyes, it creates a rather intoxicating feeling..almost a hallucination..and you mistake your skin to be made of gold! And the sunlit trees, beds and even the concrete jungle seem to secrete gold. The angled rays that fall on your bed gently caress you, as if they want to comfort you after how badly you have been hurt by this cruel world, and yet at the same time making you believe that this world is such a beautiful place to live in. And at other times, sliced up by the grills of the windows, they seem like the chessboard of nature and time, with the next move being thought of right on your bed!
My mom once hung some pretty little white and pink plastic flowers from our wall…just PLASTIC things…but those magical rays seemed to render them all the life they ever needed!
They give me life too! Every single day at this time of the year. Every single year. It’s just maddening..becomes so damn difficult not to travel..and not to fantasize about traveling..and not to replay inside my mind all those amazingly peaceful-breathtaking-exhilarating-immensely humbling experiences. Those things which you can probably experience only on this planet, yet that feel so way out of this world! Whenever I see those white clouds sail in full glory, with golden edges shining in bright sunlight, I can’t help but think that they are those that I have seen sleeping from late evenings till early mornings..like the dreamiest sea of the purest cotton..covering and washing away the valleys bellow me in what the imaginative mind likes to think as peace and purity and humanity..while I couldn’t take my eyes of the Sleeping Buddha..while standing atop a hill on the Sandakphu-Phalut trail, pleasantly shivering from cold and excitement!
And similarly intoxicating are the nights..with a vivid Shiuli scent in the first-fog moist air that feels so soothing on your bare feet when you walk on the terrace, gazing at the sky..wondering..and wandering!
Curiously enough, the fog seems to concentrate around the pale white street lights, which stand lonely by the roads hanging their heads a bit towards the ground, as if they have done something really shameful a long time back, but are still unable to forgive themselves completely. Well but if you walk under them with the warmth of another hand in yours, then it’s a completely different story my friend!
At this time of the year you feel it so very much at dawn, when you want to slower your fan a stop or two and pull a sheet over yourself which not only makes you warm and comfortable but gives you a great sense of security too, probably from the world outside, and maybe even brings out the baby in you, that wants to curl up inside the sheet or the blanket, arms going into the chest and the knees bending and coming up, as if you have never been a witness to the never-ending injustice all around, and as if you have never done injustice to anyone, because this baby inside us is just too pure to do something like that. Alas..how people change! How we have changed!
But the arrival of winter doesn’t change really. Well may be a few things change over the years, like tall buildings going up that block your view of the rising fog-clad and dull winter sun, which will, in the later parts of the day, bask gloriously so that you can just soak up that heat and that spirit in you while oiled up babies play in their yards under the watchful yet content eyes of their mothers. And may be some people leave us, some forever, while the early morning fog acts as a mysteriously desired screen where you can play the slides of the memories that you have of them..and may be the eyes get borderline-watery just because of the season change!
When the sun colors up itself and starts its journey towards the other side of the world, you know that a long night is coming your way which is only going to get longer, but which you will thoroughly enjoy in this land of summer, because it will bless you like a sweet memory amidst the harsh realities of everyday..something that you can’t enjoy all the time but something that you absolutely cherish when you do attain it..or when it does you a favor!
Most of the days at different times between late night and sunrise, I just stick my face between the grills of my windows and breathe-in heavily, trying to smell and feel that coolness and moistness of the air outside that just seems to come from an outside world and sit over the earth in the secrecy of the night..just to give you all the inspiration that you need to fuel-up your fantasies!
Another big reason why I love this time so much is because this is the time when I generally travel to the mountains…THE MOUNTAINS!! But that’s completely another story…or rather an array of stories: experiences-bliss-peace-humility-kindness-adventure-adrenaline-friendship-love-nature….and humanity!
Here are some Shiuli clicks from my house: They bloom in the evening and I took these photos very late in the afternoon next day, so they weren’t in their best shape, but well, they are Shiuli alright!
My Life And Journeys 