A Home in Heaven

Far from the madding crowd, a visit home has become a craving nowadays.
A sojourn at home clears the mind from all the clutter and the toxins accumulated during the stay at Delhi.

Greeted by half a dozen species of birds in the morning, I realized that it is the best alarm to wake up to. I never realized the worth of this chirpy alarm in my school days. It's only now that I find it so special because I can't find even crows in the place I now live in.

Speaking of the place I live now, Quick Update :D The last six months have put me at the threshold of a new phase of life. Standing on the shore, with arms wide open, the world yet to be explored. Some major and minor changes have come up. The cab-waale bhaiya calls me Madam instead of the regular gudiya now, which felt awkward in the beginning. I have two white hair that I no longer pluck from my head and no longer make a big deal of, or write poetry about. Numerous circumstances gave me a taste of affection, betrayal, serendipity, cruelness and unconditional love as well. All in all - the sweet taste of life.  Having understood the importance of love and human connection, I have held my loved ones who still wanted to stick with me a bit tighter than before now.



Coming back to the topic, back here at home, the days are slow and light. The myth of a "productive day" is gone. We are immune to meaningless numbers and never-ending deadliness towards again, more meaningless work. The time, though not productive by accepted standards is very fulfilling for the soul. The morning is spent with the brother roaming around and being reminiscent of the memories of a dear childhood.

Remember we used to gather here and share ghost stories?

Remember there used to be a tree over there which we used to climb?

Remember that girl who lived in that house who used to cry a lot?

Remember you were stung by bees beneath this tree?

Remember you fell from there while flying a kite and broke your bone?

Remember after your foot was burnt in Diwali, I used to push you around on bicycle from here to here?

Remember how we used to hide up there and throw flowers and leaves on anyone who went by?

The sweet sunshine gives respite from the ice-cold winters. An afternoon nap under the blue sky is therapeutic. Falling asleep watching the romance of the clouds and the snow-capped mountains in the distance is a luxury.  No honk honk of the cars, no slam slam of anything else. You wake up from a deep sleep, totally relaxed, with an uncluttered mind. (But you have to be careful, the nap is susceptible to interruption by  monkeys, dogs, kittens, and occasionally mongooses.)
This is a place where I will be lovingly offered paranthas and I can lovingly refuse them and ask my brother to bring a new one for me because it had gotten half a degree colder while bringing from the kitchen. 

The evenings are pleasantly full of love and chit-chat, head massages, old Hindi music, teasing, and laughter. The nights are silent and shiny. Life slows down its pace. You have a lot of fun, do a lot of things. And still, it's only 7 pm. Whaaaat? Running out of things to do, you take out the old photo albums and take a walk down the Nostalgia Road. You discuss for hours the small, big, bittersweet events in your life captured in those pictures. That's how a regular day goes by.



Just like that, one of the nights, I boarded the bus back to Delhi. Waking up just in the time to directly reach the office, and finding myself robotically entering the metro surrounded by people on all sides, I tried to digest I was no longer in the mountains. No slow life, no playing with monkeys today, no limitless sky to lie underneath. Moving my neck in all the directions possible, the only and exact words that came out were:

"Yeh kya ho gaya mere saath Bhagwaan!"

An Unexpected Sojourn: Check!

The reason I am so fond of surprises is that they give you happiness when you are least expecting it.
Same goes for the bad ones. Just one blow and it's all over. No anticipations, no maatha-pacchi
Speaking of surprises, I had always wished for at least one such day in my life when someone would just pop out and say, "Hurry, pack your bags, we're going somewhere".

So my story starts thus:
One fine day I was waiting for a kick start to this semester, any clever or stupid thing, any kind of inspiration, but all in vain.
Just about when I was sure that seasons will change, but my life will stay the same; and confident that nothing interesting can happen this semester, I got a call from my brother, "Me and Maa-Papa will be with you in some time".
"Ha ha sure! What else?"
"Also pack up your things, we're taking you somewhere"
At that moment, it was easier for me to believe that my brother was getting a blue whale for me this Rakshabandhan than this.
And the mind wandered for the two hours, as I packed my things. Where would we go? Are they really coming, just like that? The heart started pumping.

Fast forward, and we were en route to a destination where I had the loveliest two days I had spent in a long time.
It was even more special because in between the love and laughter and togetherness, I realized that my whole family went out together after SIX LONG YEARS.
Of course we have been going to places in between also, but there was always a time when either my brother had his exams, or I couldn't come from college. So it has been either the three of them, Papa and my brother, and most of the times, it has been just me!
This very fact made the trip all the more special.

And here I am now. Back to college, with good memories to cherish, a war scar from another sibling war, and few happy pictures.
But there's a flaw that goes hand in hand with every good experience. It sometimes makes you feel  hollow when you remember it later on. Too bad! Now  it feels like this never happened. The sojourn now appears to be a distant dream...

So, this is how I checked another wish off my list. It was not much of a 'thrill and excitement' type experience, as I had expected it to be when I wrote it on my list, but doesn't matter. It was much better than that because it was family. Now who can beat THAT! :D
Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one. :D

Meet us. We're Nemo- Part 1

BOOM! CLAP!

The sound of my heart.
The beat goes on and on and on and on and...

And I wonder what kind of evil telepathy exists between the two of us, me and Joshi. It so happened this fine day that I sent her a song which, after lots of thinking, I had concluded to exactly fit tomorrow's adventure. Coincidentally, she had been listening to the same song for half an hour. It's not just this. It happens very often that we both would say the same thing at the same time, and we would always be thinking the same thing. We would understand code language even by the blink of an eye.
I mean to say we can read each other inside out. Well, almost. This is scary (and awkward) at times.
So, coming to the main thing.
What's going to happen tomorrow? We'll come to know.
Holidays, holidays. I never got enough of those after I came here. Even this Diwali, only 4. What would you do in 4 days? :'(
Reach home, say Hi! to your family and come back?
This is the only reason I had told my parents in clear words, that I won't be coming home for Diwali. I heard "Ok" in reply.
But Amma was too sad as she wanted me to come home.
Then only because she wanted me to, I thought I would give a little surprise to everyone. Well, I would not like to take all the credits to myself, as it was Anurag, who plotted the entire master plan, to which I added the surprise part.
And seeing me, my dear friend has also made one similar plan. One little thing to worry is that if I reach home like that, my parents might throw me out of the house, or worse, instead of them, I might get some surprise :P
But what's life without a little risk?
And tomorrow is the day. :P
The only trouble is. We both are too scared to go alone. I wish I could take her with me. But my reservation is for the worst time I could possibly get.
Actually, we had a plan where some of our friends would come and I'll be on way, to hopefully reach alive the next morning. I would have to wait for some 3 hours, with me and myself, and my boredom, and me. But my goody nicey classmates backed out. And now there's just the two of us.
(Actually I knew it and expected that there would be just two of us even before the plan was made. The  people in my college are THAT amazing and predictable)
See. Here I would want to make one thing very clear.
We are a little scared and worried NOT because we're cowards. BUT because we're Nemo.
But. We just have to reach home. Big deal? No!
Just 17 hours. And I'll be at familiar territory to be yelled at :P
I want to write sooooo much more.
This doesn't explain even a fraction of our story at the moment. But it's too late and I think I should sleep, and pack bags, maybe? Some warm clothes? It's going to be chilly and frosty and I'm going to undergo metamorphosis and transform and come out as a beautiful butterfly ice cream.

So this was basically an introduction and generation of "platform". My VAP mates would understand what I mean.
The actual thrill will be there in Part 2, which is going to be amazing, for sure :D
Heaven here I come :D
P.S. I like surprises a lot, you know that!