Leisure

The other day I came across this beautiful poem by W. H. Davies and no later than I've finished reading it, I felt a pang of suffocation in my workplace. So, I got up and walked out of the place to somewhere devoid of that paper sheet reading "Pending Tasks", where there are things that are more than mere human contrivances...where there are trees and the bed of green grass instead of columns of concrete and the marble floor...where the wind that kisses you is the same that kissed the leaves, the birds and the squirrel.

Fortunately, in this part of hyderabad one could find a few remnants of natural beauty -- a pond, old rocks on dwarf(and almost barren) hills and some open spaces dotted with trees (all of which is being voraciously gnawed up by the upcoming software firm buildings). So, I set out to visit the nearby pond whose one side is cluttered with waste building material and the opposite side has a narrow pathway alongside the shore with a few tamarind(imli), neem & Acacia(babul) trees. Its been three months since I last sat beneath the tamarind tree on the opposite shore. The words were still ringing in my head -

                 "WHAT is this life if, full of care,
                  We have no time to stand and stare?"

But my steps today were unhurried, I looked at the office building and it looked back...different. Then I was thinking of my childhood...that village with its green farms...narrow pathways between two corn fields...those strolls with friends, each one putting forth his 'theory of everything' about things we saw around us...the barefooted runs chasing the peacocks since they can't fly much...and involuntarily, I was singin these lines from pink floyd's High Hopes:

                   The grass was greener
                   The light was brighter
                   The taste was sweeter
                   The nights of wonder
                   With friends surrounded
                   The dawn mist glowing
                   The water flowing
                   The endless river

Now I was beneath the tamarind tree at the pond shore, awed by the beauty and serenity of the place. Every now and then a small fish breaches the water surface as if to smell the air, on the nearby tree branch is perched a kind of Egret waiting for the opportunity, a water snake swam at a distance, I scared a few crabs as I went close to them - weird creatures, i thought to myself...they walk sideways; cool wind blowing and slowly I was being lost in the beauty of nature's creations that go unnoticed in our busy everyday life. Everything around looked to be ecstatic and I was feeling elevated too. Suddenly, it didn't seem to matter anymore if I fail to show any significant work for the day in the daily status report(the only other time it happens is when a few pints of beer think and talk for you :D). Seeing those merry creatures I thought, we may have learned to build cosy houses for ourselves but we certainly have forgotten how to celebrate life. Now I could appreciate better than ever as to why Thoreau chose to go into the woods. And since then I slow down to smell the air...to appreciate the beauty...to stand and stare!!

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