Today
morning was a breathtaking melancholy. There is this confounding paradox you
experience when nature is at full bloom in front of you but you have limited
time to breathe in its splendor. I was subject to this sweet agony. Clouds in various
shades of grey decorated the skies. But they were not willing to part with
their droplets as they clung on to them tightly. Rain was tantalizing one
and all. One moment it looked to tear away from the clouds and splash us all
with vengeance and the next moment its loyalties shifted once again. The sun
appeared very shy as it hid behind the clouds and took an occasional peek with
the naughtiness of a child. May be it was playing hide and seek with the rain.
As it glanced through the broad shoulders of the grey clouds, its rays added
more shade, slither and shimmer to the already moistly clouds. Everything under
the sun glistened due to this early morning activity of the sky folk.
My
morning drive to the office transformed itself into a grand odyssey through the
gates of paradise that was graced by nature’s grand opera. I reverently thanked
every traffic light on the way, prayed for a traffic jam and religiously tailed
the slowest car on the road. I was a happy victim to the wrath and honks of
several bustling men and women who were in a hurry to get to work. A guy who
angrily passed me mouthed a few obscenities and was shocked to see my radiant
smile in return. I guess he might even have thought that I might be a distant
relation to Jesus or Buddha. Sorry to disappoint you my friend. Little did he
know that the bloom of my smile sprang from Mother Nature’s symphony!
And
it just kept getting better as rain decided to make its grand entry. Winds
started gushing around and the rustle of the leaves became music to my ears.
There was a particularly enthralling scene I witnessed with bated breath. It
was a visual of a water droplet fighting the battle of its life. It was
clinging on with all its might to the shimmering glass as it was tossed left
and right in a frantic pace. It started its slippery slide downward, was
luckily held tight for a moment by another fellow droplet that was going
through a similar struggle. The moment was short lived as the Good Samaritan
couldn’t hold for long and both of them started their descent together. And
then it happened… Flash… my car’s wiper came up like an axe to chop them into
several pieces and dislodged them from the windshield into eternity! Poetic!
Nature
seemed to be bombarding my eyes with its beauty. I just did not want the
panorama to stop. And for the first time in a year, I felt that my office could
have been a little farther. But then again, luck was on my side today as I
hadn’t brought my lunch and gaily stepped out once again in the afternoon. The
scenery had just gotten more heavenly. It looked the children of heaven were
out on a picnic. The crayons and the paint brushes had come out and they had
let their imagination run wild as they had shaped the clouds into so many
breathtaking forms and shapes that I just could not stop gazing. I decided to
shun my car and walk down. The graceful trees romanced the soothing wind in the
perfect ballet. It was so magical that I don’t really remember what I ate for
lunch.
And
time took the incarnation of a snail post lunch. It took an eternity for the
clock to strike 5 as I hurried out of work to immerse myself in the sea of beauty
that lay outstretched outside. And no wonder nature’s last act was its best.
The clouds had spread themselves far and wide through the vast expanse of the
sky. Their somber grey had given way to a subtle and supple blue. The sun’s red
was smeared in a gorgeously slender tinge which gave the evening sky a splendid
shimmer. I watched the tinge slowly tail the fading sun to oblivion. With a heavy
sigh, I retreated from my balcony with the satisfaction of witnessing a perfect
day. Happiness is so simple!
