I miss walking...

I miss walking..

Back when I was around eight or ten, we used to have this family ritual of going for a walk after dinner. Back then, we were living in Karaikal, a quaint little coastal town and our home was only half a km from the waterfront. The soft gentle sea breeze which whistled through the swaying conifers and rustling neems lining the road in front of my house still brings a smile of pleasure when I think of it. Since we were living inside my fathers company quarters, traffic on the road was non-existent.In fact, it was a private road, if I may.

So every night, after dinner, while my mother cleared up and washed the dishes, my dad, sister and me would put on our bata chappals(the sandal colored ones if u know wat i mean ) and step out into the cool evenig air and begin our walk across the small stretch of road we called home. To and fro, we would go, with the soothing breeze on our face and the satisfaction of a tasty meal on our tongue, walking the walk, talking the talk. Typically, my sister would be in full flow, recounting in glorious detail every step she took in school, every word her teachers said, while my father listened attentively, his hands behind his back, his ears cocked ever so slightly to her side.

And there I would be , on the other side, half my mind processing this steady stream of information, but the other half just wandering here and there, and all this while, my hands moving involuntarily bowling an imaginary yorker or spanking a scorching drive through the covers. And it is in these walks, that I feel I learnt more than in any classroom. It is on these walks that I learnt from my father questions ranging from space travel to relativity, from the color of sunlight to the appreciation of a poem. I have learnt more from those discussions with my father and sister on everything under the sun ( or rather the moon ) than anything I ve learnt in any classroom ( though to be fair, I haven't really tried the latter ;) ). But more than all, I learn about the joy of walking.. I learnt about the warmth of togetherness...
And after a while, my father would fetch me inside to see what was keeping my mother so long. And when she too joins us, her work for the day done, we walk together, cocooned in the warmth of togetherness.

I miss walking...

Life in black and white...

I remember, back when i was a kid, thinking that life in previous generations used to be in black and white. I swear, I believed that. I could just imagine people walking about, talking , going to school, raising families, everything- but in black and white. Maybe it was all those black and white movies of yesteyears or maybe it was those black and white photographs of my parents and grandparents back in their childhood- whatever it was, it had me sold good on the idea. Even now, sometimes when i am in a nostalgic mood, when i am thinking fondly of old memories, I like trying to imagine those times in black and white- a greyscaled footage of snapshots in slowmotion. Somehow, it all seems simpler, happier, and more heartwarming .. try it :)

What's under your eyelids?!

The mind is a fickle thing! Have you ever tried just lying down with your eyes closed and try to see?? Sounds absurd?! What I mean is have u tried seeing whats at the back of your eyelids?! havent?! try it ! it can be pretty fun and a bit disorienting. But dont worry, sanity is just an eyelid away :)

Looking back...and forward...

Am back again..staring at the familiar screen of the blog's new post window, which still looks ( astonishingly, considering today's fast changing world) so similar to the screen that stared at me when i first got this urge to blog some five years back..
and i wonder.. how things have changed, how much i have grown..or how much i haven't...

And i think of all the journeys that I have been on ... and i mean not just the ones on which i traveled places. I think of all those dreams left behind, those ideals compromised, those heights gained and those lows reached. I think of all those people who I ve met on this journey, a few who are still close in heart and body..so many, oh so many who lie buried in the deepest recesses of my memory, biding their time, waiting for those flashes of deja vu to resurface them, albeit fleetingly into consciousness, a sweet reminder of days gone by, greyscaled footage of memories which seems to surprise you with their clarity and detail.

I like thinking about the good times I had.. somehow they seem better every passing year. As though the fun and smiles are like wine, growing better and settling down as the years fly by. I only wish I could just sit back with nary a thought in my head in an easy chair like the one grandfather used to recline in after lunch ( a charukasera, in malayalam, a simple elegant but immensely comfortable piece of furniture ) and just stare at the bright blue sky and lose myself in golden memories, and let my mind wander by itself to wherever it chooses. Ah! bliss.. But I guess, such peace of mind is a long way off, something to be earned, not dreamt wistfully off..But till that day, I will dream on..