Music, a heartfelt note/appreciation, children with their trusting innocence

I would have stolen an existing idea and made it my own. There is this blog I follow called 'Three Beautiful Things,' and more often than not, its about simple things. Beauty around us, in the mundane. A sleeping child, the splendid brown of a freshly baked cake, the froth on a cup of coffee, soft colorful clay, a freshly washed white shirt. You get it, I am sure. Without meaning to plagiarize, I started writing about the things which make everything seem fine.

Music most definitely works always. You need to pick that right piece of music and suddenly out of nowhere, you can have your own pocketful of sunshine (that was my favorite song for the longest time). Like in so many of my posts, this will be about nothing so in case you are reading this, do not expect enlightenment at the end of this. I am really just trying to dust away the rust, and trying real hard to get back to writing. So be nice appreciate the effort and reserve the criticism for later :)

A heartfelt note, in our digital age we don't get these anymore. But if something of this kind does happen to pay a visit to our inbox; it does feel pretty good. If you happen to have a particularly lucky streak then you might get that unexpected note of appreciation and oh what a feeling. Tells you, you did something, someone noticed and decided to give you a pat on your back. Aren't we all about doing stuff to get noticed and instant gratification. Think a certain social network and our efforts to be leading an enviable life. 

Finally, a child walking up to you with their toys to help them with their Lego, a child you have never met before, but who trusts you suddenly more than his parents. A child who sits next to you, and trusts you to put food in their mouth and help them finish before mommy gets back. Ah that innocence, doesn't that take your breath away. Makes one feel, at what point did we lose that child in us...

Confused Existential or not!

Spot check, birds-eye view, 36000 ft view blah blah blah... you get the picture and you know this is what you wanted, or at least thought you did. Your very own rich green pasture. By some stroke of luck (or what seems like luck) you do actually get it. When you do get it, is when you realize that green indeed is always misleading. That which you always aspired for, is finally yours to keep, but suddenly realization strikes that you never wanted to keep it in the first place. Life is what you make it, they say, so better be wise in the act of making. Disgruntled thoughts these might seem, but they all make volumes of sense if you see where I am coming from, but too bad you wont.

Existence as you know it can be threatened suddenly cause that's not the norm. For every minute of unbridled joy, there could be hours of disturbing inertia. Hours of careless abandon could come hand in hand with systematic sanity. But you have never known sanity, not the one defined for you anyway, so you can come unhinged by that very sacred green pasture you chose for yourself.

If the wisdom of here and now would have come at a less steeper price, how precious would that be? 

If you are here, don't look for meaning. These disgruntled ideas must have poured themselves without any rhyme or reason and here they are. I am trying to comprehend these myself but cannot, so I shall stop here. 

A much needed road trip to nowhere…

There are times when you need to really take the road less travelled, or sometimes not travelled at all. I mean this in the most literal sense. Bags stuffed with munchies, camera charged and car tank fully fed, we set out of the city. Music blasting from the speakers, 5 voices full of gaiety excited to head to nowhere. Every now and then the lens would rear its head out of the case to capture the amber rays of the evening sun, its golden glow, silhouettes of branches, making for the most wonderful pictures. The landscape on either side very different from what we were used to, the roads narrow, the flora in its myriad shades, quite the kick just to venture out. Road trips are always a handful for the keen eye of the camera. A dozen miles later, hunger pangs took the better of us, it was time to make the first pit stop at a dhaba. I'm still not quite sure if it was actually the food, the company, the surroundings, the impromptu nature of the trip or some combination of all three, that we couldn't stop gushing about the food.

Fully fed on a lot of carbs and laughter, we were off again on the road to nowhere. There is a reason I call it the road to nowhere, cause when we did reach the destination, we realized the joy truly was in the journey. It was the drive that made it worth the while, and most importantly, for the life of us we couldn't recall the name of the place we were off to. Classic case of how getting out was far more important and reaching somewhere…

By the time we did reach the place on the map that had been narrowed down on, we realized there were lush green forests which were waiting to be walked into. Now we have enough of that on campus, and I doubt if any of us (including the more adventurous kinds) have dared to venture in to the depths of these inviting greens past sunset.  Therefore, it was quite the task to make the feeble hearted ones to walk along on the picture perfect, orange winding path running like the spine of the forest.  We walked and walked and walked… until darkness finally did descend. Time can be such a spoilt sport sometimes, it comes knocking on your door, when you least want it to and then you have to pack your bags and get moving. Just like we did… cause return we must, to complete the circle, to always be closing!

Dying sunlight,

The darkening shade,

 A narrow winding path…

A chirping sound or two,

Rustling of leaves or life

The depth beckons, the road nowhere

Falling stones somewhere far ahead

Sounds of footsteps and some voices

Before the silence and descending darkness!