WHERE WOULD I WANT TO BE TODAY?
Of course, this is a weekday and I am at work, doing my deskjob. I once used to whine and fret about being here, but a long sabbatical has taught me, among many other things, to take things as they come. Unlike before, I no longer have problems banging the keyboard in front of the computer, scribbling really obscure stuff that control most of the world now, but make sense to very few. I may not be complaining, but the weather outside still tempts me to dream of place somewhere else I would rather be.
And the place that is coming into my mind right now is Agumbe, in the heart of malnad, in the green hills of the Sahyadris. It rains there like mad, and rains like this nowhere else in the peninsula. Every place you turn to is green, but the views of the far are blocked by the mist and the incessant drizzle, if not downpour. I am fond of this mist, this cool weather and all the hot bondas and steaming cup of filter coffee that warm up the body like nothing else.
A waterfall at Agumbe
Call us crazy if you wish, we walked several kilometers in this rain with no protection a few years ago, hoping to see a sunset(not really hoping) when the visiblity was 10 feet! And the downpour never left us in peace when we were on the road. Suffered, we did but also undescribably elated at the same time, just happy being in that rain. And if you thought we were crazy, what would you call the guy who was selling ice-creams at the sun set point? Yes, there were no bondas to eat but ice cream if you wished!
It is the waterfalls that come alive in the monsoons, it is the breeze that comes with the wind, the mist, the greenery, the bondas, the feel of homecoming that call me to be with them. Heaven, is what I call it.
Where would you want to be today, if you could?