Warm musings of a peaceful afternoon

Of crossing the railway track and letting yourself into a world moving at a different pace than your own.

There is no paucity of time here. It is a quiet life, offering flashes of beauty and peace, each moment bettering the previous.

Staring endlessly at the gentle ripples of the lake waters, meandering through long winding roads by the lake;

Catching a glimpse of ducks ducking in and out of the waters, the kites flying overhead, the crow cawing over a piece of left-over food and mynahs cooing in the bushes of some wild flowering plants;

Tall coconut palms swaying sensuously in the languorous breeze of the late afternoon, almost seducing the onlookers; (hi)jacked by jackfruits hanging in clusters, tempting one to pluck and eat them…
Villagers gossiping around a big banyan tree, its never-ending branches a mute witness to scores of such sessions held amidst the young and the old alike;

Young kids playing cricket on a vacant ground with a rectangular piece of wood as a cricket bat and a couple of sheep grazing nearby serving as wicket or perhaps short leg! Beautiful women in bright sarees praying in a small temple beside the peepul tree, whose trunk bears marks of kumkum and haldi;

You keep traversing the road not taken and in some time find yourself again facing the lake waters and then, out of nowhere, the sound of a sharp horn, almost blowing out like a long whistle, breaks the earthy silence, shaking you out of your reverie – only to be followed by a train speeding through the greenery, the lake waters and the coconut palms, its brownish- orange coloured engine chugging along………………..

Your mind takes it all in and feels a strange (maybe not so much) fusion of peace, quiet, contentment, elation and wonder.