Tuesday, November 16

... few of my favourite things







Every one has their share of favourite things.

 It is raining here most days. This kind of rain has missed its course and duration. Some say it is a Monsoon failure. When rains linger too long, people complain. For me, rain makes me lazy by not allowing me to water my plants. Each time I miss watering the plants, I miss a favorite thing in my life. Each watering section is a small break that opens a window to my kind of spirituality: Watering plants is a moment when I can talk to myself and speak to plants all about myself. They listen! ...  I can listen to the plants too and feel their total dependence on me for their sustenance. That is a great feeling. Watering my garden is more than a ritual... it is a sacrament !!   



Walking barefoot over dew-drenched grass or on round pebbles, strolling across lonely sun-baked beaches ... 
those are little joys I love.  Do you? 


Listening to the cooing of doves and pigeons is a great pleasure in my life. My office would have been a quit place but for the cooing of a dozen or more pigeons. “What are they talking about?” I wonder. I think cooing is all about family matters. There are the aggressive males who are interested only in their girl friends and building a family with them...and there are the softer girls that fly away from these advancing males. Like humans, isn’t it?

Browsing  my old books and the stamp collection can easily absorb hours from me. I would open some of my old favorite tittles and recognize the familiar ageing scent on those pages. The scent on the pages only adds to the vivid memories of reading those books and the growing ups I have made with it. It is a sheer coincidence that these days there are scented stamps too. Browsing some of those stamps, I cannot escape the fragrance of the roses and the sandalwood.  

My life would have been a lot lot more poorer if I hadn't climbed Himalayas over and over again.
How great is the Mighty Himalayas !
What is India without Himalayas !!
I can never forget when I wept  kneeling on that snow and rock of that great mountain.
It is truly one of God's greatest of creation !
 

By the way....I wonder how many love to peel an orange. I want to do more than peeling: I want to squeeze an orange-peel and feel the fragrance of the fresh orange all around!  I think my tryst with ‘orange fantasy’ rooted with my job in Coke's bottling plants. Those days, lots and lots of ‘Fanta’ production kept me deep in orange fragrance.  Today I continue the orange legacy by enjoying the act of peeling it! (Some say that those fruity scents are feminine. I do not agree with them.)    

Today I miss fountain pens and inks a lot. Last time I purchased traditional writing pens was from a mall. I have kept them as a showpiece. I miss those names like ‘Swan’ and ‘Waterman’ to an inexpensive ‘Hero’.... so is my old ‘Raleigh’ cycle to a another modern ‘Hero’.  

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All photos are from my personal file. They show my much loved Himalayas and the Calicut Beach. 
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