iniyamalar
17th March 2011, 08:48 PM
Part 1:
She felt something warm on her eyelids. Like a tender and warm hand stroking her face with a breezy finger. She was drugged by the pleasure it gave, and didn’t open her eyes for sometime. The warmth slowly spread across her body and she felt heavenly.
The rare perfume of ‘pavaza malli’ (a variety of jasmine) mixed with some herbs was a concoction magical enough to send her rising mind back to sleep. She fought harder than usual to open her eyes.
It was morning sunshine. A pair of misty clouds floated past her eyes. Oh God, Am I in heaven? she thought, and a very cold thought followed it. Am I dead?
A purple butterfly flew across her nose and cleared her thoughts. She let her eyes follow the tiny thing. It sat joyfully on a yellow flower, it’s fluttering wings slowing down as it drank the nectar. She gazed up. Wow. A beautiful sight was waiting for her to see.
Chemba got up and freed herself from inside her sleeping bag. The morning breeze was colder than she had expected. She shivered slightly. They had spread their sleeping bags on a big and bare flat space among the sparsely green hilly section the night before.
She moved out of the circularly spread sleeping bags and went near the cliff. She just couldn’t stop gawking. “When there is something this huge and beautiful and yet so humble and quite, How could I have been amazed at merely a house?” She thought almost instantaneously.
The sun was slowly waking up as he had already thrown out his golden bed spread on the earth. His lady love, the earth had eagerly accepted it and was hugging it hard and tight and was turning greenish yellow, its ecstasy turned into tears that overflowed as sparkling waterfalls all over her body. Looking at the love scene, the sky had blushed pink. Her breath was waking up all those sleeping flowers out of their slumber and their fragrance called for all those lovely birds and bees seeking nectar. The trees too had woken up as the earth’s breath- breeze had danced around them for which the birds sang hymn.
The nature at its best sat quietly before her, smiling at her. She removed her slippers and put a foot out and closed her eyes.
“ To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug” Helen keller’s words came to her mind like a stroke. How wonderful would it be to have a steaming cup of coffee, she thought.
“Coffee?”
She turned at the voice. Mathanan was standing there with a mug of something steaming. He looked dangerously heavenly in this yellow lighting. She turned her eyes away but her nostrils picked up the strong aroma of coffee.
“Come on, don’t hide your feelings. You can have this. This would make your beautiful smile even pretty.” he said.
“Why are you so..so…” Chemba was searching for words.
“Open?” he asked with a brisk smile.
“Why do you have to close yourself up? Why can’t you be just open like this nature for instant? I like it that way. I like you. You turn me on and I just am not ashamed of myself for accepting that simple fact.” He said calmly. ”coffee?” he asked again.
“I don’t have the habit of dringing coffee before brushing my teeth” she said and walked away from him, feeling weird inside her. I turn him on? mm..
It was 8.00 am when everybody was up and ready for the trek. They had had ‘uppuma’( a dish made of sooji) for breakfast which vangs simply hated, but not after Oviya taught him how to eat it with sugar. Shekar was throwing admiring glances at her now and then.
They had started to climb. Everybody was properly attired in thick boots and shorts, a light shirt and a coverall jacket tied at the hip and backpack perfectly stuffed with necessary paraphernalia. The group started their trip like professional climbers.
Few hours of easy climbing passed, all the while the youngsters chattered away and clicked away innumerable snaps. When it was about 11.00 am they reached a big clearing and they decided to take a break. They were sharing bread sticks. But Kuttan refused to take anything. He seemed to be distressed on something.
“What’s the matter?”Smitha asked him in broken sign language. He looked sad and forlorn.
He then showed her the sky.”what?” she asked. He again showed her the sky and turned few leaves upside and said something in sign language. Nobody could understand him except Madhanan.
“I think he says that something he saw in the sky and the upturned leaves were kind of a bad omen. I guess he is worried about his loved ones.” He asked him if he had anyone back at home in sign language.
Kuttan brightened up at that and shook his head vigorously up and down. He showed one finger and showed something small. “Probably a baby sister or brother.” Mathanan suggested. “Even some native American tribes have beliefs like these.”
“Yeah all natives have these stupid beliefs.” Vangs said.
“You can’t rule out all of them like that. Once even our astronomers were considered stupids beings when they were star gazing. Even Us, Indians were considered stupid natives once. And look now, half of the medicinal herbs our ancestors used in daily life are now accepted as having medicinal values- like urmeric. All that is unbelievable is not exactly impossible, Vangs. I think A.P.J Abdul kalam said something along these lines right?” he turned to Chemba. Chemba was really impressed and was beginning to suspect that he was trying to impress her. But his looks were so genuine.
“well, he even said something about dreaming. So let’s take a break and a short nap. The place is awesome.”Vangs suggested.
“No you silly. We can’t ,we are already late. We gotta go if we have to make it to the ‘ainthalai pothigai’ by dusk."
“Ok then, come on lets go” Oviya dusted the back of her shorts and whisked them all.
She felt something warm on her eyelids. Like a tender and warm hand stroking her face with a breezy finger. She was drugged by the pleasure it gave, and didn’t open her eyes for sometime. The warmth slowly spread across her body and she felt heavenly.
The rare perfume of ‘pavaza malli’ (a variety of jasmine) mixed with some herbs was a concoction magical enough to send her rising mind back to sleep. She fought harder than usual to open her eyes.
It was morning sunshine. A pair of misty clouds floated past her eyes. Oh God, Am I in heaven? she thought, and a very cold thought followed it. Am I dead?
A purple butterfly flew across her nose and cleared her thoughts. She let her eyes follow the tiny thing. It sat joyfully on a yellow flower, it’s fluttering wings slowing down as it drank the nectar. She gazed up. Wow. A beautiful sight was waiting for her to see.
Chemba got up and freed herself from inside her sleeping bag. The morning breeze was colder than she had expected. She shivered slightly. They had spread their sleeping bags on a big and bare flat space among the sparsely green hilly section the night before.
She moved out of the circularly spread sleeping bags and went near the cliff. She just couldn’t stop gawking. “When there is something this huge and beautiful and yet so humble and quite, How could I have been amazed at merely a house?” She thought almost instantaneously.
The sun was slowly waking up as he had already thrown out his golden bed spread on the earth. His lady love, the earth had eagerly accepted it and was hugging it hard and tight and was turning greenish yellow, its ecstasy turned into tears that overflowed as sparkling waterfalls all over her body. Looking at the love scene, the sky had blushed pink. Her breath was waking up all those sleeping flowers out of their slumber and their fragrance called for all those lovely birds and bees seeking nectar. The trees too had woken up as the earth’s breath- breeze had danced around them for which the birds sang hymn.
The nature at its best sat quietly before her, smiling at her. She removed her slippers and put a foot out and closed her eyes.
“ To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug” Helen keller’s words came to her mind like a stroke. How wonderful would it be to have a steaming cup of coffee, she thought.
“Coffee?”
She turned at the voice. Mathanan was standing there with a mug of something steaming. He looked dangerously heavenly in this yellow lighting. She turned her eyes away but her nostrils picked up the strong aroma of coffee.
“Come on, don’t hide your feelings. You can have this. This would make your beautiful smile even pretty.” he said.
“Why are you so..so…” Chemba was searching for words.
“Open?” he asked with a brisk smile.
“Why do you have to close yourself up? Why can’t you be just open like this nature for instant? I like it that way. I like you. You turn me on and I just am not ashamed of myself for accepting that simple fact.” He said calmly. ”coffee?” he asked again.
“I don’t have the habit of dringing coffee before brushing my teeth” she said and walked away from him, feeling weird inside her. I turn him on? mm..
It was 8.00 am when everybody was up and ready for the trek. They had had ‘uppuma’( a dish made of sooji) for breakfast which vangs simply hated, but not after Oviya taught him how to eat it with sugar. Shekar was throwing admiring glances at her now and then.
They had started to climb. Everybody was properly attired in thick boots and shorts, a light shirt and a coverall jacket tied at the hip and backpack perfectly stuffed with necessary paraphernalia. The group started their trip like professional climbers.
Few hours of easy climbing passed, all the while the youngsters chattered away and clicked away innumerable snaps. When it was about 11.00 am they reached a big clearing and they decided to take a break. They were sharing bread sticks. But Kuttan refused to take anything. He seemed to be distressed on something.
“What’s the matter?”Smitha asked him in broken sign language. He looked sad and forlorn.
He then showed her the sky.”what?” she asked. He again showed her the sky and turned few leaves upside and said something in sign language. Nobody could understand him except Madhanan.
“I think he says that something he saw in the sky and the upturned leaves were kind of a bad omen. I guess he is worried about his loved ones.” He asked him if he had anyone back at home in sign language.
Kuttan brightened up at that and shook his head vigorously up and down. He showed one finger and showed something small. “Probably a baby sister or brother.” Mathanan suggested. “Even some native American tribes have beliefs like these.”
“Yeah all natives have these stupid beliefs.” Vangs said.
“You can’t rule out all of them like that. Once even our astronomers were considered stupids beings when they were star gazing. Even Us, Indians were considered stupid natives once. And look now, half of the medicinal herbs our ancestors used in daily life are now accepted as having medicinal values- like urmeric. All that is unbelievable is not exactly impossible, Vangs. I think A.P.J Abdul kalam said something along these lines right?” he turned to Chemba. Chemba was really impressed and was beginning to suspect that he was trying to impress her. But his looks were so genuine.
“well, he even said something about dreaming. So let’s take a break and a short nap. The place is awesome.”Vangs suggested.
“No you silly. We can’t ,we are already late. We gotta go if we have to make it to the ‘ainthalai pothigai’ by dusk."
“Ok then, come on lets go” Oviya dusted the back of her shorts and whisked them all.