I Miss Traveling

I miss the scent of unfamiliar grounds, the excitement just before exploring, the oohs-and-ahhs after spotting something unexpected, the random murmur of voices unknown to me, I miss having all my senses react to the magic of the world. I miss having my mind wander..

It's high time I recreate it for myself.

Watching the colourful rainbow,
The pouring rain,
A flock of birds in the distance,
Watching roof tops shine with moisture,
Listening to the song in the breeze,
Feeling the tiny drops caress my face,
Feeling those those sudden goosebumps on my arms,
My lips involuntarily relaxing into that longed-for smile,
My mind swaying like the trees,
I ask myself, why was this window closed all this while?
All I had to do was slide it open..
This window of my cloaked thoughts.

*Life is Beautiful!*

Katty

Sometimes, there are moments in life that you would want to hold on to tightly, take pictures of, memorize and recreate them whenever you want and they will never fail to bring that smile back on your face. Such is the time that passed me by in the past few weeks.

Though my parents had agreed to host a foreigner when I had asked them, the apprehension was clear on their faces before the day you arrived. They had my whole room cleaned twice, bought new things for home (mineral water, sugar cubes, brand new cutlery, bedsheets, etc.), and there were a lot of "Will she like this?", "Will she be used to that?" moments. I can't deny that I was a little worried too. But, in spite of having had such a tiring journey, when you arrived with that big smile on your face, it took us fifteen minutes to realise that this was going to be much easier than we thought.

I cannot believe that it has been a whole month since that day, time seems to have simply flown by.

Your prompt refusal to use a spoon to eat rice, your craze for "That-Blue-Salwar-Kameez!", those mad photo sessions in the auto everytime there was a traffic jam, your wordless communication mechanisms with my grandmother and Geetha, your fetish for spicy Indian food, the eagerness to learn everything that was new, the practice sessions for Bole Chudiyan, those long conversations about almost everything under the sun.... Oh, there are too many moments!

I will never forget that day when you came back home after a long trip, collapsed on to my bed and said with that satisfied smile on your face "Ah! I am back home!" :)

I dedicate this post to you, because not always am I impacted so strongly by someone in such a short span of time. I feel really really lucky to have been given this opportunity to get to know you, learn from you, and your stay here has changed my whole family's perspective of foreigners.

It is true that sometimes, little things make so much of a difference to your life, and I have come to appreciate that.

I will miss every little thing about you, my crazy sister. :)

...

The breeze around the lake was unstoppable. She could see the wind sweep past the water, past the border, and gush into her face as if it had yearned for her as much as she had, for it. It tangled her hair into a mess, it always brought a tear drop at the corner of her eye with its force, but she didn't mind. She loved staring into the wind. It had challenged her to stare back, and she did. As the force slowly toned down, she was sure it had noticed the sly smile of victory on her face.

"Yes, I remember", It seemed to say,
"Welcome back".

She looked down into the blue water, stared past her own face looking at her, past the clear surface, into its depths. A deep that was deceiving to the world that was looking from outside. A deep that looked shallow, but could kill.
A deep that held secrets of its own world.

She continued to watch as an excited child threw a snack into the water, hoping to see a fish appear out of nowhere and strike marie-gold. A sudden disturbance, a sudden "Glug" of the tiny snack hitting the surface, a sudden "Woosh" of a bigger-than-expected fish grabbing its treasure, then silence.
The child was happy, and so was the fish, it seemed.

She still watched, as the bird flew just above the water, scanning underneath, skillfully scooped an unlucky fish, probably with the hint of a marie-gold flavour in it, and drifted away, disappearing into the vast, clear, blue sky.
The bitter-sweet order of nature.

She liked coming to the lake. She had been a regular visitor for the first eighteen years that she had known life. Then time had her patterns reach out elsewhere, to a new life.
A new life that held secrets of its own world.

Nothing had changed about the lake. The breeze was still welcoming; the water still secretive; the wandering children still happy and excited; the sky still bringing back visitor birds.
How she wished the life beyond the lake remained the same too.

In the year that she had spent away from home, life had become something else. At home and away. But she did not give up. She searched and searched until she found the only part of her past life that had stayed put, the only part that she could cling on to now.

The lake.

The lake that held secrets of its own world.

And she, an outsider, a visitor, like the birds.

While the birds feasted on fish, she feasted on memories.

Time-pass

I have loved this song ever since I heard it the first time about two years ago. :)

PS: Just in case its not obvious, I am singing along in the song too!

My New Friend

Sunrise from my window.