Life
is beautiful when its contents occur in “sprinkles”, like that mild spice
sprinkled over your favorite food turning around on the barbeque. Excesses in
life seem to make it happier, but to be real, those excesses make life appear
easy and essence less that; you begin to search for unreal things, unreal
pleasures while still you haven’t enjoyed the basic happiness and thrills. Nature is a medium which has that
inextinguishable capability to; hold you along the reality of life, nurture
your tender origins, teach you what people can’t but, still give the power to
break free and let lose your “instinct” to play for a while. The biggest
learning from nature is patience, and to learn it effectively loads of it are
needed and again, in sprinkles, as you cannot expect her to translate you to a
divine state overnight. Your connection and separation from her are the
inherent vitals to learn and master the teaching, to see and enjoy the
creation, to go through and realize what it’s all about. Born amidst the characteristic chaos of a city life, during the elegant
80’s, the world rapidly changed, through the confused 90’s, to a more ruthless
and meaningless lifestyle where even sex was available at the press of a
keypad. The place of your birth subtly guides your lifestyle, creativity,
vision and passion, and mine did nothing as I was completely out of sync and
wasn’t interested at all in what it was the best, the “typical” life of school,
college and work. My first connection, with a full heart and independence,
with what I loved the most occurred as late as 29 years after I was born and
they were the distant mountains of the west that contained over them few of the
most inspiring forms of nature. Ever since that first time, it had been an annual ritual for me to wait
for the monsoon rains to hit the west coast, transform them into an unrivalled
beauty, load them with stories and send over an invitation to me through a bolt
of lightning across the polluted skyline of my city 700+ Kms away. During
recent years the monsoon had been weak and stubborn that, its paucity slowly
pacified my relentless quest to climb over the mountains, hide in their forests
and get drenched in the nostalgic downpour as the Ghats meticulously trapped
the clouds that were always eager to cross over but never managed to. 2017 was
no different and the monsoon began with a cautious note as the entire country
was waiting with crossed fingers and heavy breaths, and I plummeted to the west
with a kind of hurry hitherto unseen in my trips, it was sudden. It was the end of June, the first month of
rains, and the transition to July would normally be violent with rains
thrashing the Ghats like a teacher hell bent to correct an unruly student who
was only natural. I didn’t want to miss this “rave” and embarked on a quick
drive to my favorite village and the southern capital of rains, the alluring
Agumbe, and my predictions didn’t prove me wrong, thankfully. I first met her
in 2011 and that had been the best meeting between us ever, as she propelled my
love for her, forever, that later became a lifetime affair and I was already
beginning to think if a lifetime would do justice to this love. As we entered
the “misted” entry to Agumbe, it was instantly apparent what we were to go
through during each of the tick and tock sound on our clocks for the next 48
hours and to be frank, we were humbled by the experiences she offered to us
this time. Originally I had planned for romancing with 2 of the hidden gems in
this region, but a lonely elephant and the potential threat from Pit Vipers
forced us to abandon our plan for the day 2. It was painful to depart Agumbe, a pain that I had gone through during
each of my departures in the past 6 years, though the stories and memories she
had conveyed will help to sustain my dream until the next monsoon. But during
this departure, I somehow believed I will meet her again in 2017 itself and the
long compensatory drive through the unusual route of Kudremukh region
catapulted my desire to be with her to new heights. It was an unwanted and long
drive back home, through the remote countryside of Chickmagalur Ghats, but I
wanted it badly to fortify my dream of existing with her in a world that was
immortal. And this dream existed in intermittent sprinkles in a life driven
by the desire to keep it running around the clock, as I dreamt about making
this dream a permanent one while it was bound to remain a dream though…
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