Airports...

Thousands of passengers…

Each having a different destination, each travelling for a different reason. Some starting their journey, some ending, and a select few just passing through.
Hundreds of people working twenty four hours a day and seven days a week for the security and comfort of the thousands, who for them are just faceless dots without an identity…

And then there are the airplanes themselves. Made of tons and tons of metal, plastic and wires. Carrying hundreds of people; their cargo, and hopes, dreams and aspirations and a plethora of emotions. Roaring, growling monsters as if, yet taking to the air unsupported, effortless, and full of elegance…

Oh I could spend hours and hours and hours at the airport and still not grow tired!
Why are airports so enigmatic?
[The video is courtesy of YouTube and Abhishek Singh. I do not own the video.]

Autumn...

After Summer left, Autumn never really did come...

Now it is just a cold, long winter that stretches ahead...

Gardens...

Photo: Google Image Search

And there were my maternal grandparents, whose home in Dehra in the valley was surrounded by a beautiful, well-kept garden. How I wish I had been old enough to prevent that lovely home from passing into other hands. But no one can take away our memories.

Grandfather looked after the orchard, Grandmother looked after the flower garden. Like all people who have lived together for many years, they had the occasional disagreement.

Grandfather would proceed to sulk on a bench beneath the jackfruit tree while, at the other end of the garden, Grandmother would start clipping a hedge with more than her usual vigour. Silently, imperceptibly, they would make their way towards the center of the garden where the flower beds gave way to a vegetable patch. This was neutral ground. My cousins and I looked on like UN observers. And there, among the cauliflowers, conversation would begin again, and the quarrel would be forgotten. There’s nothing like home-grown vegetables for bringing two people together.

Red roses for young lovers. French beans for long-standing relationships!

 –Ruskin Bond. (Coaxing a Garden from Himalayan Soil, Rain in the Mountains.)

For Yourself...

When was the last time you sang a song for yourself
Instead of having the iPod
Deliver it to your ears?

When was the last time you whistled your favourite tune
Shrill as it may be
Just because it makes you feel happy?

When was the last time you took a stroll
Just because you wanted to walk
And  not to get from Point A to Point B?

When was the last time you made a coffee for yourself
Instead of buying it from a dull grey machine at Starbucks
Which spurts out lukewarm liquid at the press of a button?

When was the last time you lived?