Are you interested in taking up a trip to a village? I cannot hold on the secret for long…! It’s off the city life and full of good air. Birth place of wise Indian philosopher Sankaracharyar. A very old Namboodiri Ellam that turned out to be the womb for wisdom that took Indian history to heights...
Each room smelled earth, rather peace! Floor was so smooth and clean that my foot started feeling good… I decided to walk barefoot all around. None with some sense would feel like using sandals inside! My skin started breathing good air and guess it started shining… I did carry my digital camera but felt I should carry those memories in mind rather than limiting them into my frames…but I had to change my decisions. May be, the photography maniac within was turned on! I was accompanied by similar soul who had a better professional camera. In spite of all his comments I took out my little instrument…
It was quite hot and humid. I badly wanted to have a bath. But peacefully I decided to accompany my pal who was drenched in sweat after the long day tightly scheduled. We sat on the veranda around the inner courtyard of the home… I cannot pen down that pleasure that filled my heart after a long break… I could sense the arrival of a heavy rain, unfitting to the bright sunlight that promised a warm evening!
We always compete when it comes to uttering words. Neglecting the rest of the world we kept talking… parallel to all those words I could feel the arrival of my article. I was ‘conceiving’ and now I deliver… I hope my ‘young ones’ do fuel some thoughts in your mind too…
I could not, but think, about those minutes; hours I dragged in coffee shops in the town... Air-conditioned rooms generating duplicate comfort, and me with eyes searching for better joy… I did find various ‘faces’ of life- friends who pledge their evenings on chocolate cakes, husbands and wives staring at each other for unknown reasons [may be their office issues, or some at the bed, or event the affair they hide from each other!!!], girls and boys searching for a better pair placing their arms on another, babies wrapped in nappies, book worms…. It was definitely a learning experience, a process that made me more and more thirsty for a better life… And I was so happy that I was placed next to this friend who put the right choice in front of me…
I miss lots of innocence and purity of thoughts. Billions of human beings struggle to find freedom and happiness, they are there to accompany me in the rut my generation is in. I slowly started analyzing the factors that lead me feel all these… Yes, ignorance of the past… My answer is someway biased due my graduation in History, still I am happy that my finding is true…
By the time, the idea of organizing stress-buster camps in this campus did form in my mind… Now I needed reasons why I had an inclination towards this place and what is new in this place… Well the first doubt was answered soon by that old lady who resides in my mind [the granny in me!] it was the strong roots I have in the culture and traditions. All that practices which were fed in right from childhood do reside in my personality. I knew that a philosopher too resides my being. And it was her turn to explain the rest….
There was absolutely nothing new in this place for sure. The fact was that people of my generation has become aliens to our age old practices and lifestyle! Al what I found in this aashram was once a common site in our country. Plants, trees, discipline and hygiene. We have very well managed to reach that stage where our ancestral lifestyles are showcased by existing wise men. I have many times felt that the globe survives only because of these people who keep reminding about the valuable and peaceful past… Is it because that people have mortgaged their confidence for western lifestyle, and earned fear of mind?! Blind adaptation of ‘West life’ has become a curse on this generation. Oh, am I turning too philosophical? Should I mute my ‘philosopher’? ‘’No’’ was the immediate answer of the judge-my conscience. She always listens to various arguments the ‘angel, witch, philosopher, wife, daughter, mother, teacher and fool’ in me come up with!
In early days bathing two times a day was just a routine, now it’s modified into a prescription! Oil massage was anyone’s habit; massage parlors of the new era earn bags of wealth in the name of that good old thing which was done by oneself! Oh man has easily found out the ways to make money even through utilization of his neighbor’s laziness!!! Dieting was a new concept till recent years. But now it’s an everyday term for all those who fail to eat healthy food. Junk food fed by busy moms grow the babies fat and idle. I wonder how many kids get chance to run around and rejoice. They are trained to be sick I say…. I am sure those bedtime stories my granny and mom [to a little extend] had told me, did play a role in building up my morals. Now ‘batman and spiderman’ teach kids what to do!!! And I find many kids grow independent, they pick books of their choice and read. I feel disturbed though I am speaking of someone’s kids. How many really take a look at that stuff read by their babies? Am I going too wild?
Soon it rained. The baked soil drank the droplets. We drank the fragrance the soil had returned… Let me be that romantic woman,’’ the earth sighed when she received a message from her love… or was it an elixir the sky had sprinkled on her? They never get to meet, the union that would never happen…still they live in hope. Is the earth a woman who’s forced to live with a man not of her choice, and the sky, her love of life whom she expects to come and conquer her??? Is she happy that she can gaze at him all day and night inseparably...? And the sky a lover who’s destined to stay away and express his deep love through the sunlit days and moonlit nights?’’ O o… hope you people don’t get bored…
Time was not flying for the first time. Even time knew how badly I was in love with the entire thing happening… I owe these beautiful moments to my friend. Those photographs we caught in our frames, jokes that only we could enjoy, and the stroll in the plot [including the visit to the pond in which my darling did not want me to try my swimming skills!]… I nurture each moment I could spend there. And I share it all with you…. I am in love…once again with the Indian past….
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