This happy feelin'...

Must say, this is my most favorite time of the year, here in Pune!

For me, this feeling of well-being starts around Diwali (Oct-Nov) & stretches well beyond the new-year. There's something different in the air... something cheerful.

Firstly, months of rain give way to clearer blue skies. Then evenings bring in the chills & the mornings are misty.

The blue skies cast blue reflections in calm waters & the fluffy white clouds cast blue shadows over distant blue mountains. There's a blueness in the air.

Swifts fly aimlessly chirping on cheerful dusky evenings.
Dragon-flies start hovering over shining calm waters.
The turtle-doves appear from nowhere & the kingfisher starts calling for it's mate. S-shaped herons stand still over shallow river waters like yogis lost in some kind of trance...
Scented white flowers loom large all over tall trees looking like stars twinkling on clear dark skies. These delicate flowers cling loosely onto the branches with their tender stems & let go with every puff of breeze as though eloping away from their homes with this new found lover!

I can stare at the glistening ripples in the rivers for hours, totally oblivious to time, responsibilities, regrets & losses.
All these things appear so insignificant & unreal when u r drenched with this feeling, I'm trying to describe...


Acknowledgments -
Painting illustration - Joe white
http://laughingcrows.com/

Musings over a mongoose family...

There's this mongoose family (a couple & a tiny pup that's newly emerged :)) I've been tracking these-days.
It dwells in a rabbit-hole, in the field just across our apartment. (Easily visible thru' our hall window). It's a neat little happy family. They all look very healthy. The father is bigger in size & has darker fur as compared to the glistening grey of the mother & pup.
Every morning I see them emerge from the hole & bask in the warm morning sun. The mother is the caring & the careful of the lot. So often she guides the pup upto the river & back. A slightest rustle in the surrounding grass puts her on full alert especially when the pup's around.
A couple of days back, I saw the dad return to the hole in a dizzy manner. Much like the irresponsible, troubled & inebriated dads of human families living in slums. It was sick. May be bitten by a poisonous snake or taken an electric shock.
The family looked terrorised and anxious that evening. The mom scampered in & out of the hole aimlessly while the pup & the dad disappeared in the dark mysterious rabbit hole.
Thereafter the mom disappeared too.
After a gap of 3 days I saw the family out again today, happy & healthy. Wonder what love, nursing, praying & healing went inside the rabbit-hole for 3 days, but peace & health seems to have restored in that family, much to my relief :).
Some day would love to shrink like Alice & venture into that mysterious dark rabbit-hole...

Acknowledgments -
Painting Illustration by Nic Baker (http://www.nicbaker.com/)