Chirpy Morning

It is a fine October morning of the year 2013. Fall is here. The leaves have decided to put forward their best appearance before they bid a goodbye. As the leaves start to fall, the temperatures are not so far behind. They start falling too. This is the time when hot sweaty days turn in to pleasant chilly days.

As I sat on my porch today with a cup of hot tea, a book, a devotional song (Suprabhatam by MS Subbulakshmi) playing in the background, slightly chilled wind gushing on to my face in regular intervals and the Sun trying to penetrate through a big tree near my balcony; I felt BLISS. I wanted the time to stop and experience the bliss forever.

When I was a child, we used to visit my grand parents’ place every summer. It is a town located on the coast of Bay of Bengal. Summers used to be very HOT and HUMID. So for obvious reasons, we all had our beds made on the terrace. Best parts were the nights and the early mornings. It used to be pleasantly chilled with little wind blowing and tall coconut tree leaves and palm tree leaves perfectly playing the role of an A.C.

The Sun came out quite early in the morning and I was compelled to wake up. I would unwillingly wake up and become a zombie. Journey from the terrace to the house used to be the longest at that point in time. I used to again try to go to sleep but all my trails would go in vain due to the heat inside the house. As a result I used to just go to the porch and sit there for a very long time (until my mom started screaming at me for not brushing my teeth).

There’s a temple located right across the street of my grandparents’ house. Needless to say, pujas and artis and archanas would start right from the start of the day. The ‘Suprabhatam’ played every morning and was a pure melody to the ears. The wind played its part perfectly and made the mornings heavenly.

The bliss I experienced today was no different than what I experienced then. Just that, I never really appreciated what I had when I was a child. And today when I am past all that I truly miss it and treasure it.

My grandparents’ house holds a very special place in my heart. Although my grandpa has now rented the house to someone else, I always have an urge to go there and relive all the moments.

The house is small yet it accommodated 3 – 4 families that paid a visit to it. We were a bunch of 4 cousins who met during every summer vacation and made the best of it. The house had a big backyard with numerous coconut trees. Toilets were located at the rear end of the backyard and the bathroom was right outside the house. Trips to the toilet were always fun and adventurous, especially after dark.

Every morning after freshening up, my grandpa used to pluck coconuts from the trees in our backyard and give us coconut water and coconut meat. After which he used to go to the market (on his red Kinetic) and get us seafood – prawns, fish, and crabs.

In the meanwhile, all the ladies would chit chat and do the household work. And we kids would run around and play endlessly.

We used to have relatives visiting our place throughout the day. The house was always filled with people and love.

As the summer vacation came to an end, we all bade goodbye to our grandparents and the house with a heavy heart and teary eyes.

It was around 7 years back when I bade goodbye to that house and didn't get a chance to be a part of it since. Nevertheless, the memories I have of it are priceless. We might not be in that house, but our family is still closely woven and we've made some new memories of being together.

Change is the only thing that remains constant. Although we hesitate to a change in the beginning, we do embrace it as time passes by. And it’s again time for a change. Even though we change houses, cities, countries; the love we feel in meeting our loved ones never changes. It only grows stronger.

Love to love and don’t hesitate to a change. By following these one can always experience BLISS.