SWITZERLAND!

SWITZERLAND! Three places stole my heart away:

In order:

1. Zermatt

2. Lausanne

3. Brissago Islands

Next time, I am gonna book a hostel in Zermatt and come and stay there for 5 full days. You may know that sublime feeling. From Zermatt trip, I was going back in the 3:00 p.m. Glacier express to Visp to take a train back home, with its centralized heating on lending my shivering body some warmth of home. The huge-big, bustling with snow-snowy, snowy-mountains were all around and they were not leaving me, wanting me to extend my arms and touch them with the tips of my fingers. At every bend and turn, they were there as if wanting to come with me and sit, have tea and samosas and just talk and tell stories hidden deep within them needing the right audience. And I felt proud that moment to realize myself worthy of being among that right audience. Only at Brig/Visp, most probably Brig, did they said Bye and not good bye. They will call me again and I will go up Mt. Matterhorn for sure. Klein Matterhorn? No problem. Matterhorn might be world-famous, I didn't know it before this trip. When I glimpsed it from Zermatt valley below, its snow was playing hide and seek with the clouds hovering and trying to engulf the peak. Precisely that time, to me, it looked as if it rose straight from the books of Lord Shiva, the high and mighty mountain God!. Shiva has the grace and charm of enticing Mountain lover as well as the fiery, tandav-loving Mountain man. In fact, it looked like a younger sibling of Mt. Kailash, Shiva's abode, with a height of 4478 m as opposed to Mt. Kailash's towering height of 6638 m. And having to experience again that legendary chill and warmth, two polarities which I was happy to experience there, is a big pull.

In the pic posted above, the pointed tip mountain in Matterhorn! It is the pic depicted on the wrapper of chocolate giant brand, Toblerone!!

Poem by myself after a decade or two :-)

If you must and will,

If you can and should,

If you could and shall,

Love the Nature all along.

The streaming rivers shining,

In the cold autumn evening,

The meadows spreading green,

The morning warm sunshine.                

The brilliant million roses,

The lilies in the sunset,

The daisies in the night,

Folding for the onset.

Of another day,

Of another time,

Of another season,

Of another rhyme.

Which will come along,

Which will spread the day,

Through cocktails and the sunsets,

Through evening, nights and stars.

The moon coming again,

The sun coming again,

The colours changing along,

Happiness going astray,

The rains coming again, coming again, coming again.

The Miracle Window

Lots of time, we have seen the sun and the moon together. And have wondered, how come when there is a rising, shining sun, the moon is still visible.

I had been given a moment when both the sun and the moon were hanging like colored crystal drops from the sky in their full grown-up avatar and full clear visibility.

It was 6:15 a.m. In the newly awakened morning. The plane was getting ready for a big leap ahead on the runway, still standing still. The whole plane field was a void, plain silvery expanse enabling me to peer away beyond the horizon. Nothing. And yet, everything.

The full moon was there, right in front of my eyes. Round, sparkling. Difficult to separate the pure, divine silver of the moon with the silvery expanse on the earth. Difficult to know whether the color of the earth was because of the moon's radiance or because of the morning time.

Ahead of my plane, on the runway, a plane landed.

It was now time for the journey of my plane. It started slowly, the moon still sitting coyly up-above in front of my window. The plane gathered speed, accelerated and leaped above the earth, breaking its bonds with it slowly but surely.

The moon was now parallel. And giant. It seemed to smile at me welcoming in its habitat. I waved a hand.

The plane changed its course. Its wings were now playing a see-saw. The moon started to leave my window.

All of a sudden, the scarlet-red majestic sun alongwith its dark-orange rays spread on its sides appeared. A clear scarlet red. The dark-orange rays looked every inch the sun's queens. I forgot who I am. And God! The good plane brought it parallel to my window too, as if I would be sprinting out from the plane and walking over the planet Sun. It was now time for the moon to bid adieu, and the sun to spread over its warmth and bringing life into action.

I, for one, was left without a camera photograph, but with a photographic memory of a miracle only an early morning flight can bring.

A big thank-you to my plane window.

P.S. Days later,  I could get a photograph of full moon in its regalia at 5:00 a.m. morning. Posting the cynosure:

Care for our students!

Love in the clouds!

Walked alone to a shore...

 ...Found Love!

My blog has turned one year young. Cheers, my blog!!

The United Colors of Salarjung Museum, Hyderabad

Who is the fairest of them all?

Creative Flower Arrangements: Courtesy of my Daughter