On Cloud 9

As a kid, whenever I used to watch the cloudy sky, I wondered how would it feel to be on the clouds. They appeared so much fluffy and thanks to my imagination, I imagined myself bouncing up and down and sliding from one cloud to the other.

The fact that I can jump on the clouds remained with me even when I saw cloud layer below our flight. The only change was that as a grown-up I was now sure that getting near the clouds was achievable. But jumping out of the window to bounce on the cloud was not, until and unless I go for sky-diving :D.

Thankfully, I got a chance to get my facts corrected and I feel blessed to witness that eternal beauty which I cannot get out of my mind.

So this summer I traveled to Chopta, an offbeat destination in Uttrakhand, which has the highest abode of Lord Shiva in the form of Tungnath temple.

 As usual I was sleeping in the car because I wanted to preserve my energy for the place where we were actually headed for(I get tired easily, so have to work in energy saver mode :P). Journey had been long, slow songs were playing, everyone was quite, therefore a perfect setup to sleep. I don't remember for how long I had been sleeping, but woke up with the sudden hustle bustle in the cab. Everyone was in awe of something, but what?

I tried to look outside the window. It was a struggle going from half opened eyes to the moment where I don't want to blink them anymore. There was a layer of clouds running beside me. My heart throbbed with excitement, because this time I had the option to get down of the car and see how it looks like, how it feels. My cab driver was also amazed and we noticed he was looking off the road, which scared us as hell. So we all had to bring our focus back to the road, where we saw that we had a cloud in our way, which means we'll have to cross it. My excitement doubled, as what would it be like, passing through the cloud. (PS: I was sleeping while that happened on the flight). So we were getting closer to the cloud, it got a little foggy for a while and then clear again. Bam! Where is the cloud, did we just cross that? This was my reaction when I looked at the rear window, leaving the cloud behind. My childhood dream was just shattered, but a magic was created in the moment. I had just crossed the clouds in "waking" state. How many people actually get to witness that!

We got down after a while to get a better view. This is what we saw.

I remember describing the feeling to my Dad, though it looked like fog, but I felt as fresh as a leaf in the morning dew. The clouds did not just touch my skin, they touched my soul. I was surely on cloud 9.

Someone heard me

I am a morning person and love to watch sunrise. I was too excited to watch the sunrise at Kanyakumari , the southern tip of India, a place known for its sunrise and sunset over the ocean. Excitement was such, that I was not able to sleep at night. All night I kept on imagining how it would look like. What peace and satisfaction it would bring to me was already reflecting in the broad smile on my face. I just tried to contain my excitement because I wanted to save my best self to enjoy the view.

We were staying at Vivekanand Ashram and were told that the ashram has its own private area which is suitable for sunrise view. We had no idea how far the spot was from where we were staying, all we knew that we have to be at the spot by 5:45 AM. With the onset of dawn we were running on the streets looking for sign board for sunrise point. On the way we heard a peacock. My eyes immediately started scanning the surrounding to look for one. Somehow I feel lucky after seeing a peacock, but the twilight could only give me a view of a sign-board which read Peacock Sanctuary. Immediately my inner self was dancing that I'll get to see a peacock as well. My sleepy eyes were now wide open and a secret wish cropped up, to watch a peacock dance (which I had never seen before). I looked up at the sky to do a quick weather check, as I have heard that they dance when it is cloudy or rainy. The sky was clear and my concentration was back on sunrise point sign-board.

We finally reached there, but it appeared as a no man land, with a white wall blocking the sea-view. Weird thoughts started cropping up, that if the sunrise is so known why wasn't anyone there to watch it. It wasn't even that dark, so surely we weren't early. I quickly checked my left, which was east direction. I could see a big black tank with a golden outline. It was like "Chan se jo toote koi sapna" kind of moment.

Disappointment was evident on my face. We were at the wrong point and our sunrise view was blocked, that is why nobody else was there. I felt like crying because that was the only day we had in Kanyakumari and by the time we would head for the actual point we might already miss the sunrise. We decided to stay. I tried standing on varying heights just to get a glimpse. After some time, some people started showing up. A gate through the wall was opened  and we were allowed to go near the sea. As soon we passed through the gate we saw stony structures which made their way into the sea.

My hopes rose again, that if we made to the end point we might see something beautiful. We started running. My foot wears were sinking in the wet sand making it difficult to run.  I took them off, even though the shells hurt my foot, I ran as fast as I could, towards my destination.

We reached near the tip and my eyes glued to east direction. I sat down looking into the empty sky with fast paced waves splashing the rocks and occasionally able sprinkle on me. It was as if they were trying to grab my undivided attention from the sky.

When it started becoming bright, it became very evident that we missed the sunrise, even if we had been at the other point, the clouds would have hidden it. Even though everything around me was beautiful and peaceful, I was restless. I closed my eyes and asked the universe why did it happen. The answer was, " If you don't have unfinished business over here, you won't come back . Do come again, it is a beautiful place. For now enjoy this". In my imagination I could see a rainbow forming around the light which we were able to see in the east. I immediately had a smile on my face and thanked God for the real-like imagination. When I opened my eyes, my imagination was live. I couldn't believe it, I asked my friend to confirm whether she was able to see the rainbow as well or not. It felt like magic.

My restlessness had ended. I was in the moment, full of life.

We were asked to vacate the area in an hour as the only entry door was being closed. We headed back towards our room. The euphoria had made me forget about the peacock watch-list. But someone had decided to surprise me :D. I heard the peacock again and when I turned towards the sound I saw a peacock flaunting its spread.

I was amazed, I looked up with welled eyes and mouthed a silent thank you. My cheeks paining, unable to contain my over-excited smile. My friends  gave me a puzzled look and all I could say, someone heard .