Tra la la la

Tra la la la la….

Arrival…

She had been playing hide and seek for many days now. Making an appearance quietly in the night and leaving her mark. It was only when you woke up in the morning did you realise she had been there. The morning air smelled different. The fragrance of her visit lingered on, adding a freshness to the morning that was somehow different. Her footprint could be seen everywhere. The roads were damp and the plants were bathed. You wish you had woken up when she came. So that you could reach out your hand and touch her. Try and close your fist around her knowing very well that she’ll slip away. But you would try nonetheless. You want to be tempted to run out to greet her, to welcome her with your arms outstretched. The way you perhaps did when you were a kid. You wish you could lose yourself in her once more, forgetting your worries, your troubles. But she remained illusive, playing with you, teasing you, lurking just around the corner, coming out when you won’t see her and yet know that she has been there.

She’s made you wait so long already, you are desperate for her. Almost as if she knows this, she plays this game of hide and seek with you. The day when you least expect it, a gust of wind hits you. It hits you hard, but what hits harder is the realization that comes with it. This is no ordinary breeze! This is an arrival announcement. She is coming and she has sent you an advance notice. Prepare yourself, here I come, says she. You suddenly become aware of the other signs. The air carries a subtle hint of her arrival too. You think of a princess whose perfume wafts into the room much before she makes an appearance. The perfume does its job, without a single spoken word, the entire room is aware of the princess’ imminent arrival and everyone looks forward to the first glimpse of hers. When she enters the room, all eyes are on the princess and she enjoys each and every bit of that attention. You think of this image and realise what you’d been waiting for is like royalty too, eagerly awaited by one and all.

A smile breaks out on your face and you see the faces around you mirror it. Everyone has caught on the signs and is smiling in anticipation. It’s the end of a tiring day; the wind refreshes you and fills you with a childlike glee. And for a few moments, you do forget your problems. You stretch out your hand again to check if she is really there or is it just your eyes playing tricks on you. And when you do that, a soft shower of the rain falls on your hand. Its touch seems wonderful, caressing. Its feel is like velvet, soft and sensuous. But the most overpowering feeling is the exploding happiness in your heart when you see the rain, when you feel it. The air is cooler than it has been in months. The wind sprays tiny droplets on your face sometimes. You raise your face eagerly to the oncoming spray and close your eyes tightly. It is your moment of pure unadulterated pleasure. The bliss of first rain…

Creek

Bridge over the creek, originally uploaded by anksy06.

Grey… The world becomes grey when I move over the creek. The rail track a dark grey, the water a light grey, the sky a lighter grey and the mist surrounding me is the lightest, almost white grey. The horizon is blurred; the sea and sky go from being one to another at no definite point, almost as if one flows into the other. The buildings on the far end are hazy at best and the clouds hanging low over a small hillock just add to the chimerical atmosphere. But I think it is the mist that does it. It is the soft mist that casts a clock of surrealism on everything around, making me feel I am in transit between two worlds and this short stretch is a walk with my inner self. A walk where I become oblivious to the people around me, to the jostling, pushing and to the incessant babbling din that can only be the result of hundred or so women crammed in a space meant for fifty. And yes, I do become oblivious to all that. When I look at the rippling water flowing under the bridge, I sometimes think of life, sometimes of death, sometimes of dad, working so hard to keep all of us happy, sometimes of mom, who has made us her world giving up everything for our slightest joys. I also think sometimes of death, the 50 feet drop to the water below you can do that sometimes… It also makes me think of things I have deliberately pushed to the back of my mind, an introspection of sorts…

And on other days, it’s bright and beautiful with a breeze that ruffles your hair and refreshes you completely – draining all traces of a hard day at work. Nature, they say has a strange way of connecting with you…

Charlie’s Angels….

The part about real life that is different from books and movies is that there is no suddenness in real life. Well, almost no suddenness. Transitions in life are generally slow, progressing over time as against abrupt, jolting happening in reel life. When do people at your workplace go from being colleagues to friendly colleagues to friends, you can never really say. There are no defining moments you can look back upon and say that this was the time my relationship with such and such person changed.

It’s all a blur when I look back at it now, nut J, S and me have gone thru exactly this transition. They can be clearly called sources of solace in a place where the general atmosphere tended to be hostility wrapped in a cloak of friendliness. It was so easy to forget it all when I stepped out for a cup of coffee with J. When I think of all that drooling over dollops of luscious chocolate ice cream with S, it gives my perpetual chocolate ice cream a big boost!

It happens rarely, but it happens sometimes, that I am at a loss for words!!! This is one such time… Thanks for being there girls, here’s to Charlie’s Angels J

 

ps - For those of you who can’t understand the title and pic in this post, J, S and Me are called Charlie’s Angels!!!