Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Fall Forever

Before I came to Chennai in the summer of '93, we lived for three years in Uttar Pradesh. It was in a medium sized town called Mawana, 90 minutes from Meerut (remember History lessons on 1857) and not too far from Dehradun either. The point is this place actually had the 4 seasons that I've read about in so many poems and stories and was free of the tiresome 'Hot, Hotter, Hottest' cycle found south of the Tropic of Cancer. And hence this post.

Autumn is my favourite season. I love the freshness of spring, the dew on new grown buds and the feeling of renewal and hope that cloaks everything during this time. I also enjoy the crisp and biting cold of winter mornings and the matchless joy of basking in a patch of pale sunlight afterwards. And the smell of the the first rain on parched earth sends me into raptures.

But I like autumn better than all of this, especially a cloudy autumn day. There's something about the falling leaves, the golden carpet on the ground and the dappled sunlight shining weakly through the trees. It brings to the heart a song that is both happy and sad. A song that speaks of great joy and great sorrow all blended together into one. It sets the spirit aflame and makes the heart leap. When I read 'The Solitary Reaper' for the first time, I imagined her song to be something like this. (Do they harvest in autumn?) Whenever I read 'Lord of the Rings' I imagine the Namárië (Galadriel's Lament) to be such a song.

There are four trees overhanging our hostel terrace that always have a lot of yellow and falling leaves. All the year round. Have seen and heard (and studied in Botany) of evergreen trees, but golden trees I thought only existed in books. Not being able to satiate my desire to stare at the sea here in Madurai, I make do with these trees and another place I shall talk about some other day.

PS: I swear I was not drunk or stoned when I wrote this post. Honestly don't know why I got so romantic all of a sudden.

PPS: 10 points to anyone who guesses the other place. (The Swashbucklers living in the hostel are not eligible for this coz you guys already know.)

2 Comments:

Blogger Harish said...

yaaru da andha ponnu? :)

7:07 am  
Blogger Hemanth said...

@Harish
Lol. Noone so far da

2:52 pm  

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