Got up and breathed in winter today.
With my hands holding the warm cup of ginger flavored tea, I stood in my balcony this morning. My gaze running through the horizon (unconsciously searching for what changed today).
There’s a time before winter when you could feel winter is about to come.
Cold air starts breezing through, partial fog starts to glide through the fields early morning…and you witness nature preparing itself for Winter.
As a kid, I grew up in parts of Rajasthan (a state in northern part of India), it gets really cold here in Winter. Mercury falling all the way through zero and settling up somewhere on the negative scale.
I’ve been carefree in several aspects of my life since the beginning of my time. Like, I’ve never cared for temperature fluctuations, especially as a kid, hence I always ended up with chapped lips and rough red cheeks, which used to become an ordeal for my mother afterwards. I also used to end up catching cold and flu and periods of non-productivity and troubled times. Oh wait, what would be the definition of non-productivity for a kid? Such an adult term to use! It was, basically, just periods of not doing things that you would want to do.
And here I am, standing in the balcony, viewing the same old city — Jaipur.
For many years now I’d been living in southern part of the country, where it doesn’t get this cold. So, you would not really feel the difference. But here, there’s a Game of Thrones level excitement of “Winter is coming”. As we would need to make the right amends in our lifestyles, put on thick curtains, add ingredients in food that helps us maintain the required body heat, change the lotions to suit the weather and so on.
But I am kind of liking it, feeling the same winter after so long.
I remember the last time when I enjoyed winter, I was in a school in Ladakh where I volunteered to teach kids. That place was devoid of internet, in fact, mobile network as well.
One could really feel the arrival of winter! The mountains will start turning white from the top and then the whiteness just covers it all. I remember the times we were doing a bonfire near the river. We built a tent near it, earlier that day. All of us, volunteers across the world, singing, playing Guitar, making kebabs and having beverages. And it suddenly started snowing! We were downhill.
Slowly, the intensity of snowfall increased. We just shut down the fire, grabbed our things and started climbing the hill. On the top of the hill, was our school where we were desperate to reach now. Eyes wide open, searching for the right pathway in the dimmed torchlight, I climbed the hill, gasping. It was snow in my eyes, my ears, my mouth, and body shivering with cold!
Somehow all of us managed to climb up to the school. The first thing we did was counting. We counted that all of us have been able to climb back and are safe.
Such was the winter there. I felt the chills and the thrills. A memory which is always very exciting to recall and re-live.
Such is the weather winter, always testing and inspiring. Thrilling and troubling. All at once.
Well, it’s coming now, at least in my geographical part of the world, if it’s arriving in yours too, well cheers, hope you enjoy this winter and it turns out to be cherished memory for you.
❤
