Midday Musings

It's May and I have just awakened from my weekend after-lunch nap. Was it a nap? If you can call a two hours sleep a nap, then it is a nap.. Its almost 4:30 now. I laze around in bed for another 10 minutes. My room mate is fast asleep in her bed in the other side of the room. I get up and walk out of the room, room no. 106, into the corridor. Its totally deserted on a weekend. Most of the people have gone out and the few lazybones who are there are all asleep like me. I walk on to the balcony of the hostel. It is a very wide balcony and has a very nice view. The gates of the office campus are visible from where I am standing and all is calm at the gate right now. No sign of any activity apart from the security guard roaming around idly. This same gate becomes so busy on weekdays in the morning when people are rushing to be at their desk in time and in the evening when they hurry out in their eagerness to reach home.

Mysore, the second largest city of Karnataka is located in the southern part of the Deccan Plateau and surrounded by the Chamundi Hills. Mysore in summer is hot. But the hotness here is very different from that in Kolkata, from where I come. Summer in Mysore is dry and and the heat is scorching whereas in Kolkata it is very humid and sultry.

I stand in the balcony and stare out at the view in front of me. It has cooled down a bit now. The view in front is very refreshing. A sea of green smiles back at me. On my right bright red, yellow and pink roses seem to enjoy the sun and the cool-warm breeze. The pathway in front of me is lined on both sides by trees. At the very beginning there are two coconut trees which supplies us occasionally with dry coconuts. Next in line are a few trees, the name of which I do not know. The trees are quite tall, tall but not wide and at night they are filled with white flowers like tuberoses, with a very sweet smell. Small gray concrete benches have been erected under the shade of the trees which are occupied at evening and night when the hostelites have their chat sessions in the open air. Right now the sunlight is peeping through the branches and a mosaic of light and shade has been created on the ground. This play of light and shade achieves perfection on a full moon night. The entire place is then drenched in a silvery glow making it hauntingly beautiful. One of my favorite plants here is the one with green leaves which look like maple leaves. What interests me about this green living thing is that its leaves change color in fall. In India fall is a fleeting season and in most places it passes by unnoticed. Come autumn, and the green leaves turn a yellowish pink and then its a mixture of green, yellow, pink and red against a pale sapphire colored sky with milk white cotton clouds.

Just outside the premises there is a 'flame of the forest'. It is a huge tree, its branches spreading far and wide with small green leaves which provides a wonderful shade from the scorching summer heat. The 'flame of the forest' is aptly named. In summer the tree is totally covered in bright blazing red blooms. Few plants can match the 'flame of the forest' in flamboyance. The riot of vermilion and orange flowers are visible from quite a distance and I have walked down many roads lined on both sides with them. Mysore being a hilly area with the roads going up and down, often while walking down the road we could see only the flamboyant red flowers from a distance and as we approached, the grayish brown trunk of the tree would slowly make its appearance. The presence of these red beauties makes summer in Mysore very colorful and cheerful.

With no one else around I sit on the parapet of the balcony and stare out at the bright clear blue sky. I try to spot a cloud but I can't see it from where I am sitting. I hear the constant twittering of a bird but can't spot it. It is very monotonous and dull, not chirpy and its very tone brings in me a sense of yearning, a yearning for I know not what. I am reminded of my childhood days when during hot summer afternoons the ice cream man would call out “ice cream chai ice cream”. (meaning do you want ice cream?) Health wise they weren't all that safe and at the onset of summer doctors warned everybody against them. Even then I would try to convince my mother to let me try it once but my success rate was zero. This recollection transforms me into a mellow mood and then I find this thought floating in my head:

The melancholy evening slowly progresses towards the cloudy dusk...do you want to know why the evening is melancholy? I will tell you...don’t you feel all evenings are somewhat sorrowful? The day is approaching its end, twilight will soon give way to the darkness of night...the prospect of a day ending...another day gone by in the computation of life...the fruition of majority of time lies in not doing anything...doing something worthwhile once in a while...sometimes doing nothing at all. Many years have passed by in this manner...another few years will pass by thus....we just keep calculating what we have got and what we have not...the scales always heavier towards what we have not received...despairing for what we have not achieved. But do we spare a thought for what we have got...how precious that is ? This is our biggest fault...always eyeing the yet not received...eventually forgetting to appreciate what we have already received...forgetting to derive happiness from the small moments in life. Really, blessed is the one who can savor...who knows to relish these small moments...these little moments of unbecoming pleasure.

The velvety green grass beckons me to go and lie down. But it is still sunny outside. So I go and knock on room no. 102 and wake up its occupants.