Of mornings goneby...

I'm back home & blogging seems to be a natural recourse from boredom & an utter lack of things to do....not the only reasons though...I need peace & calm,which expressing myself in writing provides me in good measure..
Sometime in April,2012 this blog turned two...In case you are wondering how it feels,it feels as good as seeing a sapling you planted all grown up while you were away...dumb comparison,I know...but it kinda suits the occasion no??...
The last post on this blog was a  confused,mushy piece way back in August,2011...Long time...ain't it??..
No matter how hard I tried to finish the posts lying in the drafts folder,things just didn't work out...
Just one of those things about scribbling-If the flow ain't smooth,then probably you are trying too hard...
So I let it be,incomplete posts piling up the drafts folder...
Thanks to the people who visited the blog even during this rather uncharacteristic absence...Here's hoping I can make for this absence soon...

I haven't felt too good about myself lately...However,the immediate trigger for this post weren't any of those feelings but something as simple as a sunrise witnessed after a pre-exam night out...

Read on...
-------< >---------< >----------< >-----------< >----------------< >---------
It was 4:00 a.m. on the clock...the late sleepers had slept,the early risers would have risen in an hour...I was awake,as I had been the whole night..
"last exam,just one more & then the train back home",I made a mental note...three consecutive night-outs had left me mentally & physically drained (& that showed in my answer-sheets I guess...messed up every single paper)...
More than the sleep,it was the fatigue that had begun to show...Having walked into the balcony  for some fresh air,I was pleasantly surprised by the cool breeze that lashed against my sleepy face...Add to it,a koel's rhythmic 'kuhu-kuhu' & the red hues of the rising sun in the sky all combined and I had a feeling which had been long forgotten..
Yes,something as simple as the sunrise which had turned into a lost pleasure in life...I don't remember the last time I witnessed a sunrise or felt the early morning chill...surprising no??
Probably just side-effects of the 'late to bed & late to rise' way of life...
Nevertheless,those 15 odd minutes stuck and brought reminiscences back of some other dawns etched as strongly in memory...mornings that have goneby in the course of growing up to never be back again..
This post shall deal with some of those..In fact,you might just have read the first..

Memories of a 5 year-old me waking up on my bed early morning after having dozed off almost anywhere in the house would surely rank amongst the earliest of such memories...remember questioning dad every single  time as to how that happened & him exchanging mysterious smiles with mom in return...seemed MAGIK back then..
Ah!!...childhood mysteries...

It wasn't always the innocence which made mornings memorable...At times,the persuasive self of a 7 year old had proved equally adept...
Dad often recalls with a laugh how often I accompanied him as part of Baarat's only to doze off even before reaching the bride's house...& I remember them too...waking up in the wee hours of morning at an unknown place,having pestered everyone around me the previous night,sleeping alone mostly..everyone else was interested in viewing the marriage proceedings,you see...

Add to it,the journey back on a village terrain lit up by the early morning sun plus the early morning chill & all you get is an indelible memory..the sun,the breeze,the chill~all were the same then except for the feeling,one of belonging...all part & parcel of growing up in the east I'd say..


Growing up in erstwhile Bihar & later Jharkhand,I'd often argue with mom as to why I had to take early morning baths in November,that too on account of a festival we didn't even celebrate...Chatth,falling 6 days after Diwali,is the biggest festival you'd encounter in this part of the country...of course,there's no escaping the local fervour,no matter where you stay in the country...so,I made those bare-footed trips to the puja ghats with all and sundry,just to be a spectator...And in hindsight,I'm glad I did..
Now that my last journey to the puja ghats was almost 10 years ago,I miss them...those mornings shall never come again I know..

"beta!!..garmi bahut hai aur cooler aane mein abhi bhi ek-do din lagenge..aaj ke liye aapka bistar upar lagwa doon?"
The rooftop he meant...I had just found myself a room in Kota...**1st brush with freedom**
"theek hai uncleji magar cooler dila dena jitni jaldi ho sakey" I said,trying hard not to make it obvious that I'd actually have preferred the rooftop..
Lying under the star-lit,night sky I had felt different...My first train journey ever in my 18 years of existence had brought me there & I was to live alone,all on my own for the 1st time ever..
excitement/freedom or a mixture of the two??-I still don't know...
Tired after a long journey,I had slept all snug and comfy only to wake up early...the morning sky was clear without a hint of the sapping Rajasthan sun...A mild breeze and the longest stretch of the open,blue sky I've ever seen were motivation enough to make me leave my bed & stroll around on the roof..
There were others like me,lying around...6 in total,to be precise..
Watched birds fly by in exotic formations without the slightest inkling that it was to become a hobby in the days to come...the Bharatpur bird sanctuary wasn't far,I was told...Oh!!migratory birds...but wasn't I one too??
Could see hordes of girls walk down the street on their way to classes...
The Coaching institutes had been prudent enough to segregate the girls & guys into morning & evening batches respectively..
I looked around to see one of the guys who had just woken up rubbing his eyes vigorously...disbelief at the sheer multitude of gals or just the after-effects of a long night's sleep,I didn't know...Nevertheless,wry smiles were exchanged along with intros...Who better than gals to bring about GUY-BONDING...
The morning packed in much more...Dad left for home 2 hours later after warning me repeatedly against homesickness...To the contrary,I had difficulty suppressing a strange kind of pure,unadulterated joy...I had wings,that too without consuming that 'worse-than-cough-syrup' Redbull ...hehehe....freedom does that to you,I guess...another unforgettable morning

Mornings changed forever once I entered college...or so I felt till one day into our 6th term we decided to bunk the two 'token' afternoon classes & make an escape from monotony...
Off we were to Ratnagiri...a hilarious turn of events saw us land at Divyegarh beach in a direction exactly opposite to where we intended being..Not that we regretted it...
Having reached the beach late in the evening,we were initially skeptical as to where we were headed to.. you don't go to a beach at 10 p.m.. or do you??...

Pitch darkness coupled with the raging sound that only the ocean can make and things actually looked scary initially......Nevertheless,at times,company is all you need & we were 18 of us...
The beach,expectedly,was empty...
Nothing but two distant lighthouses at either end of the beach visible only as a distant flicker,I often had to question others if they could see more to reassure myself...
However,the beach came into its own in the moon-lit night soon after..
Drinks kept a few busy,some had a football while some others went to arrange food to the nearest village ...I preferred taking a walk down the beach...*& what an experience it was*

I've long had a weakness for water-bodies & sitting long-hours beside a lake or the sea shore is one activity I'd love to dabble in someday...However,some events earlier in life have ensured that I started fearing them as well...

A sumptuous Maharashtrian Dhaba dinner & a camp-fire fuelled birthday celebration later,we had enough time to kill before dawn...Some preferred to lie down on the beach,the cool breeze & the silence which no longer seemed eerie proving too good to resist...I preferred another long walk & this time I had company...drunk friends can be fun talking to,you know...far from civilisation,the night had turned memorable,it was the best I had felt in a long,long time...

Waves washing our feet,distant trees swaying in the light breeze & just the moonlight & the flicker of the lighthouses for company it was all an other worldly feeling...an occasional hark of a bird overhead & some thoughtful conversation was just the icing on the cake...

The moonlight began dimming by 3:00 a.m.(not that we had any idea of  time) & that short duration when the sun wasn't out & the moon had just gone was kinda amazing...Needless to say,none of us had ever observed such a thing,that too in such heavenly surroundings...as we simply gazed into the horizon,all silence,even as some others snored away to glory,we knew we had just witnessed something special~a special morning...

could it get any better??...As time would tell,yes,it could...

Just two months later,I was to find myself on a window-side seat in a state bus from Chennai to Puducherry at 5 in the morning...

That morning has stood out as one of my best travel memories...& why not??...Travel along the east coast for not 1 or 2 but a full 5 hours with each of the constituents of 'my ideal morning' present~the breeze,the morning chill & the lovely early morning rising sun with the sea on either side...Ah!!I loved it..

'filter kaapi(coffee),elaichi biscuits & the early morning east coast~bliss'-->read my facebook status that day....

How I wish some morning betters it soon!!...Amen to that

Clicked on another memorable morning at Puri beach,Orissa