Monday Musings - 26

A day short of December, and I can't help thinking back at the year, as it has been. What an incredible year, 2009. I am losing count of the number of new experiences, the number of new people, the number of delightful new places that have all made 2009 so, SO incredible. And, to think there is a whole month left, a whole 31 days. Going by the pace of the rest of the year, 31 days can make for fantastic new discoveries. In multiples of three, a day.

Take this weekend, for example. After a beautifully fulfilling Friday evening, Saturday I arrived at a bubbling Asangaon station. An hour and a half away from the central Mumbai city, Asangaon is a beautiful patch of (much-needed) green. We took a rickshaw to Mokashi farms, twenty minutes away. And, we were welcomed to brown soil, green grass, blue sky and (almost) endless time.

The afternoon was spent languishing over stories, secrets and board games. How many afternoons allow us the luxury of time, I ask? I shower to rinse of the thought, and the heat. And then like campers ought to, we learn to marinate our food. To then be barbequed. Under a starry sky, although we only count 5, we attempt to grill potatoes on a camp fire. Foil we learn, does not burn. And, babycorns we learn, seldom stay on a skewer.

But, there is something about knowing we tried....the times we tried, stay like stars we count in the sky. There's something about watching the stillness of a lake in the backdrop. Of watching the sun go down on tents- of all sizes. Of learning to pitch your own tent, in the dark. Of blowing air into air pillows. And, pulling up your sleeping bag in the middle of the night, because it is SO cold. And, then there's something about waking up to the sun licking your face, the Frisbee swirling by your tent.

Welcome to a Sunday morning where your hands are burned slightly, and you seek solace in delicious home-cooked Maharashtrian food. Potatoes, roti, a deliciously watery dal and chutney made of groundnut broken into little bits, and garlic left whole.

Something about the train ride back that reminds me I am whole. I can remember snatches of Delhi, and Gurgaon, of Alibaug, and Goa, and Manori, and Pune that all made up 2009. I can remember smiling faces left behind, either in time, or space, or in some cases both. I can remember discovering Mumbai, like I never had before. People, I thought I knew before. And, the ones I never knew, too.

I am brimming with life this Monday. I am bubbling over with joy. It is as if I want to catch and savour each moment of 2009 again. Relive every single one of those experiences that came with letting go - control. It feels as if it will all come back in the end- the things I left behind. But, I know, I wouldn't trade this time for anything else. Otherwise, I would have never learned. Not just beautiful things of life and this world like my time above. But deeper lessons that I am thankful for this Monday...


[More Monday Musings here ]