aaee basant kee bahaar…

and suddenly everything around seems so beautiful. spring and sra have something going…

i look out of my window, and i see a carpet of pink, white and yellow flowers strewn on the ground.. the weather’s perfect. the light is perfect. birds chirping away… i mean..its almost picture perfect just now.

the lawns are full and lush. the best thing about all the trees around is the dual-colour. the fresh new leaves bear a brilliant pure green, so full of health and life. defining youth, as it were. and there is the older generation of dark green leaves on the same trees that are slowly withering away and making room for the fresh new ones. everyday the proportion of the lighter, brighter, happier green increases.

anyone who’s been to sra will at once recollect the drastic change in atmosphere just outside the gate and within. its like entering a magic box, insulated from the chaos and pandemonium of the street outside. It becomes completely peaceful and transforms your state of mind and being instantly. and then this beauty all around. i wont even begin to describe the flowers here. hats off to the malis. but other than that, even the natural flowers ad to the magic.

i must have seen at least 15 varieties of birds here. koyal, myna, doves and kites are common. but we also see night-herons, drongos, varieties of parrots, bulbul, the papeeha (hawk cuckoo), wood-peckers, babblers, the rare coucal or crow pheasant (bharadwaj) and of course a couple of white owls by night. i cant remember any more just now.. or i dont know some of their names. but they’re all there singing along to make real music at sra.

take a stroll around and u hear this beautiful orchestra of birds. u look around and the gardens and lawns invite you to join them in their pleasure of just being so pure and connected to mother nature. u look up and behold a sky of flames to the west and a cool blue sky with a shy moon lurking on the eastern horizon. and then of course, every few metres you go on, you hear a tanpura playing and a voice striving to merge with it just as everything around is, with nature.  you hear a sarod relentlessly strumming away notes that go closer to perfection with every repetition.

i come back to my den and with a heart brimming with this joy and with gratitude towards the beauty around for letting me into its spirit, i sit with the tanpura and resume my own quest for that Perfection.

Today, i felt i should first share this before beginning my riaz. So here goes…