The mountains beckon and I am ready to go.
Life thus far has been good to us overall, despite the many hurdles. And I do not have much in terms of regret. Although sometimes when I sit by myself, the thought that crosses my mind is that in responding to all the day to day challenges, somewhere along the line I lost sight of the bigger picture. Deliberate execution of plans was not done. Life just happened. Feels like aimless drifting.
One thing I know for sure today, I don’t want to be drifting along like this now. There aren’t too many years ahead for us now. I want to pick a direction, make a concrete plan and then go after only that.
Mountains or Beaches? This is a question posed many times to a city dweller. And almost every time that a holiday is being planned. The question to myself is that once I leave the city will I chose the mountains or the beaches to rest my weary butt in. Honestly, I love both. And I can be happy to live for the rest of my days in either of the two. But there is something about the mountains that is extra special. It could be mountains or hills. My wife makes a clear distinction between the two. But for me it makes little difference.
“Always be thankful for the little things… even the smallest mountains can hide the most breathtaking views!” ― Nyki Mack
The view from our Airbnb in IstanSome years back my wife and I spent about four weeks living in a small town in southern Spain — Istán. Only about twenty kilometers driving distance from the coastal resort town of Marbella, Istán, is at an elevation of just under three hundred meters, on the southern slopes of the Sierra de las Nieves. Even that much height was enough for the views to be majestic. From the terrace of our Airbnb apartment we could see the lake formed by the Presa de la Concepción dam and the hills of the surrounding areas. This was a view I loved waking-up to every day. It was not just fabulous mornings. As the light changed through the days so did the hues of the landscape. This was a simple pleasure that we could partake of daily. On a clear day we could even see the North African coast. And on a clear night we could see the twinkling night sky. In the hills and mountains there is that feeling of awe that is incomparable.
Watching the night sky is another one of our simple activities. Every time we visit the mountains we love to lie down in the open and watch the stars. It is best to switch off as much ambient light as you can if you want to experience the full dazzle of the night sky. And you have to pray for a clear sky on a no moon night.
Cleaner air and purer water in the mountains mean, that we always have a better appetite. The crisp mountain air energizes me. That feeling of stillness and utter peace stills me. It makes me grasp the realization that I am such a small and insignificant speck in the larger scheme of things, and yet to myself I am the most important being in the world. A conundrum of contradictions.
Being surrounded by nature is inspiring. Often in the mountains I sit still and tune in to the leisurely rhythm of nature, to nature’s myriad sounds and work on deciphering its many whispers. The trees and the mountains are witnesses to earth’s evolution. There is so much they could tell me. The mountains display their full range of emotions, their vulnerability and their towering persona. The jagged edges, the slopes, the cliffs, the peaks, the troughs and the myriad rivulets talk to me. The trails call me. Mountains are, to me, continual reminders of natural and spiritual strength. As the light and shadows pass over them, I can feel their quiet beauty. The call of the mountains is what I hear on these mellow and slow lockdown days.
When the boys were very little we would, as many times as we could, pack up and drive to the nearest hill station to Mumbai — Khandala. My parents have a house there and we would spend most weekends there. The boys would have plenty of room and freedom to explore. The house was very simple back then, but the grounds were large. Khandala is barely at an elevation of 550 meters but being so close to Mumbai it is an easy getaway. Typically, in those days it would take about two hours to get there. The roads were bad and the climb up the hill was treacherous. Indian cars in those days would struggle up the climb. The winding and steep road was quite an adventure. It was common for people to be stuck for hours on that section of the journey if there had been an accident. And accidents happened often. There was even a very popular temple halfway up where travelers would stop to pray and seek blessings for the journey ahead. But once we would make our way up the hill it was a special kind of joy.
We would play cricket with the children and have meals in the garden. One of our favourite snack was toast layered with fresh cream and sprinkled with sugar. It is not the kind of fresh cream that you buy from the shops these days. This would be the top layer that sets in the refrigerator from the full fat milk that came to the house every day. We had no idea what skimmed milk was. These were our simple thrills. We would retire only in the evenings exhausted from the day’s shenanigans. Those days are never coming back. The boys are all grown up. But now I want to rest my weary soul in the lap of the mountains. In the lap of nature, deeply feeling its embrace and letting it sooth the ravages of life thus far.
“Although I deeply love oceans, deserts, and other wild landscapes, it is only mountains that beckon me with that sort of painful magnetic pull to walk deeper and deeper into their beauty.” — Victoria Erikson
Well, for me it is actually the magical magnetic pull. Do you feel that too
Written By Mohit Gupta
Week 43, October ‘20
