.....blissful moments.......

On the day of my visa Stamping I grabbed a traveler’s book “100 best places in India” and was running through it as I waited for my turn in the consulate…..There are certain moments in life that we remember so clearly , not because they are particularly memorable at the time, but because when we look back on them we see destiny crystallizing…………… thumbing through the pages of that book was just such a moment, it was filled with pictures of Gods own Country,coconut trees, white sand, backwaters and beautiful boat houses... I thought may be God really lived there, or if he didn't, he should …......and my roots were from this place…………I smiled ............

..... I was lost, lost in those rainy days .....I love rainy days…reminds me of grandma’s home back in kerala…..the sound of rain drops hitting the roof ....….it just drives me to my childhood, when I would wait for an opportunity to sneak out of the house without anybody's knowledge and stand under the mango tree and stare back at the door to check if anybody is coming to get me……Partially drenched …..Lost in some thoughts……scared that I would get scolding from mom for doing this ..wondering if it was a mistake getting drenched in the rain? …yet wanting so much to be under that mango tree and see the rain ,feel it ....................

I still remember so very clearly, my vacation after 10th, a three month vacation, the last few weeks of my vacation was filled with rain and I had managed to stand under that mango tree for almost an hour feeling the rain and starring at the door,till my uncle came looking for me ….I wonder now, what was I thinking standing there and looking at the house on those rainy days………………

it was still a long wait before it was my turn……I flipped through those pages in the book and was lost again ..The memories of that old mango tree came rushing to me….the swings we had on it, how all of us would fight to get on it during vacation……. the feel of almost touching the clouds when Sreechechi used to push it hard and it would swing up to the sky……Ammamma screaming not to push so hard and I might fall down….....good old days……… Today that mango tree does not exist, they cut it to make a car garage………I was in Mumbai when Amma told me the news that they cut that mango tree and I was upset for days…….....as though I lost someone very close to me………