Zeena Singh For Eastern Mirror Sunday
Hello folks,
I believe that life has so much to give if only we cared to give a little thought to the most minuscule of joys (which we’d find so much of) only if we’d stop looking at the looming discomforts and discontents.
So here I am, to share with you the simplest joys in my life as I have experienced some time in my life and those that I take as I face each day, at a time.
Of Eagles and Cowbells
What might that be that once we tried so much to escape and held in utter disdain, which we now look so longingly for?
The answer: A dose of a luxurious restful afternoon snooze! (Luxurious, it is, for those who cannot attain it, but for those upon whom it is enforced?…….)I am going to take you back to the time when this luxury seemed to come upon me like a sort of a restraining order.
One day off from studies had to be spent making the most of every minute of it, and here was I, under a tenet of having to spend an hour in forced slumber on a Sunday afternoon. A full hour cut off out of a holiday? Say!!!! What a waste of precious valuable time for children raring to go!
Well, I am going to leave out the facts and fine points, the arguments and debates about catnaps and siestas on Sunday afternoons or otherwise, for another to thrash out.
I would rather talk about the enchantment that these afternoons brought in my life. Lying in the bunk (double- decked) beds that we had in the Junior dormitories, in silence, practising self control and obedience in keeping away from yielding to the temptation of talking to the co-habiting occupants of my neighbouring bunks, I sharpened my auditory perception many years ago.
A certain ringing with a ‘clunk’ ‘clunk’ drifting in from the outside caught my attention amid the sleepy silence. My awakened curiosity could not be satiated as I was not placed by a window, but my weekly torment now was turning out to be something I began to look forward to.
The imaginative prowess of my young mind would take me outdoors every week and I’d see in my mind’s eye, goats and cows down the hillside as perhaps Heidi would have up in the Swiss Alps, but every instance that I attempted to find it in reality, I would never be able to trace the source of this phenomenon.
As soothing as the effect of the sound, the end of ‘rest hour’ would leave me feeling thwarted as every race to the window and scan of the hill side or ‘khud side’ as we referred to it would be left unfruitful.
On one such unrewarding afternoon, I stood relentless at the window searching as far as my little neck could crane through the grilled frame when suddenly I saw in the distance patches of white, speckled against the green and brown of the jungled mountains. I didn’t need to squint my eyes so, as well within range was the most beautiful sight of a brown and white bird with a touch of yellow , sailing with wings stretched to its widest expanse. Gliding smoothly, it was joined by another and a third, a fourth and a fifth…….
Their graceful swoops and soars, and exceptionally appealing colours held me so rapt and captivated, that I still have them clearly imprinted before me.
Where did these magnificently striking creatures come from?
Had not the melodious bells drawn me to look out into that side of the mountains, perhaps they would have remained unnoticed for a much longer while.
Soon I moved, up to a higher floor and a higher class. The object of my curiosity remained unseen, but I stand thankful that I was able to spot another scenic vision of which today I am reminded of the verse taken from Isaiah 40 : 31 .. “ But they that wait upon the Lord, shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary, they shall run and not faint.”
Perhaps also along comes a lesson about our focus being so caught up with that which we cannot see nor perchance attain, that we can miss on that which lies upfront.
Whatever your perception, I share with you another of the pleasures however simple, but which leaves me appreciative of.
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