Be still my beating heart, these great trees are prayers.
~ R.Tagore
In Montreal, there are always a few days during the chilly autumn season when the sun suddenly shines and everything becomes unseasonably warm. Montrealers get very excited about it. I remember their eyes shone when they divulged that this was called an 'Indian Summer'. I have to admit I was rather bewildered both by the term and the excitement, but in retrospect, I understand why.
Here of course, the Indian summer is endless as a Montreal winter and the blooming trees are like a continuous, spectacular firework display, one after the other, splashing the skies with orange,purple, yellow, pink and now bright red. The same time the flowers bloom is when the old leaves fall and almost immediately new light green ones grow. Spring,summer and autumn are all rolled into one grand, continuous Indian summer in this part of the world.
Montrealers truly appreciate the small slice of beautiful, intense summer handed to them, and they appreciate even more, the tidbit of Indian summer rationed out during autumn.Here we Benglureans partake in a gigantic endless banquet for the senses every year. We are overindulged by nature. For me, it took just one year of denial to come back and hurl myself at this feast with renewed enthusiasm.
4 comments:
Oh I agree. The flowering trees are a beautiful sight to see. I remember driving into Jaipur near dusk during the kite festival. It was like the sky exploded in color between the setting sun, the trees and the kites. You talk a lot about experiencing another culture outside of India. You might enjoy a series I did a few years ago on my travels through India, which was me experiencing another culture. http://antiquitytravelers.blogspot.com/2012/11/thankful-in-india-top-ten.html
It is only in retrospect that I realize how very different the other culture was.
I cannot quite imagine my Montreal friends experiencing here.
Thank you for your interesting link. I'd find what you experienced a different culture too. Every part of India is so different from the other. You are incredibly brave.
Priya, you have so beautifully - as always - captured and described many of the sentiments that I have been experiencing during spring here in Delhi. The phenomenon of witnessing and experiencing seasons is a relatively new one for me and it has given me great joy to see trees leaf, bud, and flower during the last several months; I would have say it has been a truly healing experience. Loved the post!
Thank you Priyanka. Yes, I can see how much you've been enjoying nature from your beautiful blog post and vivid instagrams. I am glad it has been such a healing experience for you. Nature never fails at doing that.
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