as today ends...

I love this time of the day. When the evening is just beginning to set in, bringing cool respite from the afternoon heat; the sun slowly gives up its harsh, piercing existence to adopt a softer soothing feel. Lights gradually start twinkling in the distance preceding the stars by a few hours. And the sky turns various hues of red: each a poet's inspiration, an artist's challenge & a lover's desire....eventually fading into soft blues and finally the impenetrable black of the night.

I love watching the birds flying back to their abode after a day's hard work; its comforting somehow to see silhouettes against the backdrop of the fading sun...

Its time for the tired daily wage laborer to collect his wages and head home. He isn't sure if he will find work tomorrow. His life is not going to get easier, his future is practically non existent. He passes by the world of oppulence in which he has no share; for which he doesn't exist. But he isn't thinking about all that right now. He will place his faith in God and pray that he finds work tomorrow as he sets out of his shack in the morning. For now, he is just looking forward to his hard earned meal of the day and a night of sound, honest sleep.

It time for the working mother to take the train back home. She has a few more hours of hard work, there's dinner to be cooked, laundry to be done, groceries to be bought on the way, no one will offer any help or support, as she marches on from one expectation to be fulfilled after another. No her day is not over yet...but she isn't thinking of any of that now. She is just looking forward to seeing her children again.

I have always been fond of this particular time of the day.

When I was a student, often I used to study during the afternoon after school/college. But I could hardly ever concentrate. For I was always waiting eagerly for my mother to come home. It didn't matter that I was all grown up and she wasn't going to bring me something. It didn't matter if I was too grown up and wouldn't be going out to play once she got home. It didn't even matter if we had nothing to talk about and if I was going to continue doing what I was doing before she came; nothing mattered. She was going to be home soon and that always made me happy.

Try as I may I can't understand if it was her reassuring smile or the cup of "chai" we would have as went over each other's day, but second to the head massage sessions, this was my favorite time with her. And while the head massage sessions are till date mostly about catching up on family gossip, the daily evening tea sessions were more about discussions, and counselling. When my sister was grown up enough the chai sessions became a 3 member company, and just by virtue of her nature, much more filled with jokes & laughter....the seriousness of those sessions decreased significantly, the significance only increased.

Sometimes, after our tea session, I used to take my still unfinished cup and sit on the terrace and watch kids play in the park outside. Scrambling to finish their last game before night fell and their mothers called them back home.

It was my time to think about things beyond the next problem to deal with. Dreams. Ambitions. Idealogies. Philoshopy. Assimilate the 'just over' discussions with mom. Think about Life. And its endless mysteries...Sometimes I just stared into oblivion and let time slip by.

Nothing much has changed there, when ever I am home, its still the same routine. When I am not, its this I miss the most. This that cannot be replaced.

Yes, I love this time of the day. Because it inspires me as a poet, challenges me as an artist and fills the hopeful romantic in me with new dreams& desires. Because it reminds me of my blessings in life and how kind & forgiving life has been to me;. Because it reminds me of the most important and one of the strongest, smartest, most selfless and best human beings I have known till date...and how lucky I am that she is my mother. Because it reminds me of all the love & laughter I have in my life thanks to family & friends.

But mostly because it reminds me that there is joy in life; and hope; and dreams...and they don't lie beyond the day to day rut of it...you don't have to go anywhere to find them. They are right here. The smile of your child, the comfort of your mother, the food on the table, the love of your loved ones....And as the struggles of 1 day end, its time to unwind, relax & enjoy them...and let the heart be filled with new hope, new excitement, new eagerness for the next day.

For what could prepare you better for tomorrow, than today.

Traditions

Traditions. They are a funny thing. And a very controversial topic, I understand. Traditions are like non veg food. People who don’t eat it call it a violation of life, people who do...just call it the food chain. Having been on both sides of the table, I see the validity of both points. In places which are too cold or too dry to even grow grass, how can you possibly survive without eating meat. And in places which have a rich harvest of grains, fruits & vegetables, why would you eat meat??!!

And that’s my point exactly when it comes to tradition. Its all about context. Traditions, rituals, rules they are all made to give structure & system to a society. To prevent chaos & anarchy. So caste system was started to divide work load amongst different sections of the society. Even the Bhagvad Gita says it pretty clearly, that its purely work based. Not by birth, but occupation. But look at India today. Caste system is still so ingrained in the very DNA of the entire country that its tough breaking away from it even for the educated, so called “modern” people who don’t even believe in this system themselves; or at least claim so.

The politicians keep the system alive because it gives them votes. Upper classes keep it alive because it gives them, in their eyes, societal respect. Lower classes keep it alive because it gives them reservations. So in theory, everyone should be happy with it, isn’t it. Yet no one really is. Everyone complains about it. Because they are not happy with the privileges, societal or governmental, that the “other” side gets.

And to be honest that’s just a case in point. Any tradition, most traditions in fact, are designed to suit a certain time, a certain need of the society at that time. Once that need passes, they should be allowed to change. But more often than not, people just get too tied to their traditions to see that. They become too ensconced in their comfort zone to want to change. Thats the only life they know and they are afraid to step out. Fear of the unknown. And may be sometimes thats fine. After all they do say the known devil is better than the unknown one. But sometimes the unknown is not a devil and you would not know that until you stepped out & tried.

But such times and such traditions just yield 2 types of people.

Rebels who usually then end up going to the other extreme just to have their way to make a point; or just get fed up and leave to a place where they are not needed to conform.

Or ; People who are perhaps neither foolish nor courageous enough to be rebels; and hence find a way to compromise. Sometimes their dreams are formed from the early days of childhood by their parents to shape within the strict confines of their “social traditions” and sometimes , even if they dare to dream, they give them up at some point. To be frank I think it’s less cruel if they just don’t dare. Because otherwise they live forever with a wistful glance back at lost dreams. And while some find a way to be content. Others just become frustrated, spiteful and hostile towards anyone who has "more" than they do, more freedom, wealth or even..contentment.

But the worst part still is, that strangely enough, these same people, who lost their own dreams at the hands of outdated traditions, a lot of times, hold back the dreams of the next generation. In the name of tradition.

Rendezvous with the dragon princess

I first heard about Tioman a few months ago from my room mate who had gone there for a short vacation. A dragon shaped island in Malaysia on the shores of the South China Sea covered with lush, impenetrable jungles, smooth straight cliffs and giant granite boulders: it sounded nice, fun, and not more than a weekend trip. So when I got this email about a university organised weekend trip to Tioman at very affordable prices, I signed up for it immediately!

We left around 9 am Friday morning by bus and reached a checkpoint called Mersing around early afternoon. After leaving Singapore, the bus ride is completely along the hills, up & down, round & round! It was fun for me, and I was pleasantly surprised that no one got motion sickness. :P That was my first introduction to Malaysia. Mersing was our lunch spot with tons of completely new looking sea food. Vegetarians behold! There’s nothing for you except fried rice. Without eggs if you are lucky! :)

From there on it was a 2 hr ferry ride that started 1 hour late. That’s another thing you have to account for in your trip, constant delays. A great ferry ride later, where I slept, hogged on chips and made new friends, we reached our destination, Tioman Island. The first sight was breathtaking.

I instantly saw cameras in all directions as people started clicking pictures. The water on the beach was so clear, that we could see the rocks at the bottom. I had only seen that with fresh water rivers very high up in the mountains close to their starting points. It was UN-Believable!

We checked into a nice, quiet resort. Quick showers and off to a lip smacking barbeque dinner; erm for the non- vegetarians i.e. The vegatarians had veg fried rice with ketchup. And I kicked myself for having turned into one so recently, wishing I had waited until after this trip!! Arrgghhh!!!

Since it was too late to do anything that night, I had a nice quiet stroll on the beach, clicked pictures, spent time talking to the local guitarist running the 1 shack pub on the beach. His knowledge of English was very limited, he had barely heard of India but he was unbelievably good with Indian names. The only person from this part of the world who got my name correctly the first time!!! :D

The beach was small, tidy and pleasant. A group of tourists had lit a campfire. About 5-6 small fishermen motor boats anchored on the shore. A few wooden benches randomly strewn about to relax. It even had a swing, the old fashioned hanging from a tree branch style. I had the best time sitting on it, it was like 20 years ago, in my house..when my dad had put a swing for me & my sister in the house [ which broke when we both tried to sit on it together! :P ]

Almost reluctantly I went to bed.

The next morning started early, with a nice "coffee & toast" breakfast and a short walk to the “rockfall”. Errmmm.... not much a fall really, just water flowing through a few rocks; but the walk was nice. Dense jungle, early morning birds chirping, the sound of a local villager gathering wood for domestic use I guess. And the sound of water in the background. Persistent. My personal favourite anywhere anytime. The only dampener was a big bag of plastic full of beer cans etc. left along the path, by a careless irresponsible bunch of tourists I suppose. People who really don’t deserve to be allowed in such places!

Next was a longer trek along the jungle with a few newly-made-friends. Steep rocks, slippery mud, its amazing how quickly the prospect of falling to your death builds camaraderie amongst perfect strangers!! ;) The trek ended on the other side of the hill, on an isolate small beach. It was beautiful. The kind that begs the question “if you were marooned on an island....” yes i thought about the answer and no i wont say it! :P

A nice peaceful lunch where the lady kindly made a customised “mee goreng” for me, though she didn’t shy away from expressing her pity & sorrow that I wouldn’t get to taste her delicious squid, and refused to take away egg from the dish as she admonished me “You need tasty food!” . Reminded me of my mother, and prompted me to make that very expensive international call to her! :P

The next activity was snorkelling. The idea of seeing underwater life is just fascinating. And the good thing about snorkelling is you don’t even know how to swim! Which i don’t . Well I do, a little bit. Thankfully it was n’t that sunny, so I didn’t change skin colors to the point where I might run the risk of my parents failing to recognise me! :P Unfortunately, the corels weren’t as rich as the ones I had seen in Krabi; not sure if too much tourism is to be blamed here too!

And then I realised I had drifted too far off and couldn’t swim back because of the tide and because my life jacket was stuck and my mask got damaged. For a second I thought that was it. and waited for my life to flash before my eyes...when a fellow traveller "appeared"to my rescue & took me back safely to the boat. Thank God for the emergency blow whistle attached to my jacket and thank God for that saviour , my God sent angel who saved my life and then vanished into the sea of life jackets & masks....hidden behind his mask forever, like Zorro, robinhood, and spiderman, a face I would never know but would owe all my life to!! :P

That incident would forever be known as the day my life saving gear tried to kill me!! Lesson learnt, don’t get philosophical when in the middle of the ocean! :P

We reached back to the resort by around 6:30 pm, exhausted after a long day of exploring! :) A long hot shower and off I was again to explore the local market street.

Everything is just one street, along the beach. The resort, the markets, the beach itself. It all 1 straight line. A few shops with touristy purchases; a couple of sea view cafe / restaurants, that street even has its own spa. And sure it’s a rip off..but after a hard day’s work, its heaven to pamper those sore muscles with a good massage! A good dinner, where my order of fried mix vegetables came back as boiled vegetables with shredded chicken & egg; followed by another stroll on the beach under a superbly star lit night. A couple of hours sitting chatting with my new-made-friends, which by now had transformed itself into a pretty cool gang of friends and another reluctant but exhausted night of sleep.

The next morning was our final day on this picturesque island, I couldn’t believe it was over already! Not before the hearty breakfast though!! Some quick shopping and we were on our way back. Exhaustion finally kicked in and I slept back on most of my way. We got delayed a lot by rains & traffic, had a nice evening tea & snack at a hypermarket in Johor Bahru, and finally reached home at around 7:30 PM SGT.

I was exhausted, but smiling. It was totally worth it.