Hello, Again!

Some are Springs of Regeneration, where along with Nature, everything stale and stagnant in you finds an effortless way of being weeded out. That period of stagnation holds its own worth, for it allows thoughts to ferment, ideas to crystallise and colours to re-emerge – all of them not necessarily for the better, but definitely for the sake of moving on.

The Winter of 2016-17 has been a significant one. Now that I look back and re-imagine all the defining times in life, strangely enough, it has always been this patch from Winters to Spring which has cause maximum churn. It is, as if, Winter encourages a thoughtful ennui and Spring pushes one to definitive action. Summer forces sweat and action, and from Monsoon to Autumn are lived the fruits of all that labour. My yearly cycle can most simplistically be put into these words.

How significant this current churn is will only be learnt in retrospect. As one must not hasten actions, it is of greater importance to not hasten thoughts. It is essential to find lessons along the way, but it is more essential to live long enough with those lessons to know for sure that they are meant for you. Again, simply put, live those thoughts/strategies/ideas/lessons before you start swearing by them. My chase in life is of the same basic beliefs and principles which can last me a century, and this period has taught me some new, reaffirmed some old.

When I began by last blog, some 8 years ago, I talked about ‘falling in love’, with any and everything around. I am glad to share with you that I am still the same person, believing with utmost heart that ‘our higher power is love’ (source – forgotten). I am also glad to share that I have learnt to love better, persevere longer and allow the love to manifest in more ways that the parochial one stereotype we all begin at.

This blog, hopefully, will be a chronicle of all those journeys of love, through books, poems and people. I’m glad to be on this new journey, and I hope at least a few of you will be around to see and push me through.

An opening parting thought from only the greatest writer ever, Ruskin Bond, one which I always remember as I travel through love and I travel through writing, because for me, both the journeys literally flow alongside each other –

“People often ask me why my style is so simple. It is, in fact, deceptively simple, for no two sentences are alike. It is clarity that I am striving to attain, not simplicity.

Of course, some people want literature to be difficult and there are writers who like to make their readers toil and sweat. They hope to be taken more seriously that way. I have always tried to achieve a prose that is easy and conversational. And those who think this is simple should try it for themselves.”

Picture Credits – Utkarsh Srivastav (A bright lad who is trying to pursue travel as a feasible passion and profession. The above picture was clicked on the way to our favourite destination – Faraway Renz – a quiet, solitary resort owned by a friend up in the Kumaon Hills. More on that, sometime soon!)