Memories of the beloved
12 Jul 2010 10 Comments
I could see million stars , far away galaxies and even aliens who are potential “Miss Universe”.Everything looked so beautiful ,enchanting and breathtaking until I heard a sound so familiar yet strange .It was something like “underrwerrr …..anju vekka va……….” ,I woke up with a thud and my mom’s word had achieved something which my cell phone which snoozed from 2.30 am to 3.30 am could not.I woke up with a baffling question ,why the hell would she keep five of them ,for one and half day trip,if she says five ,I will make it six, considering the one which i will be wearing .”Forget it Vishak,forget it ,there are much better way to start an exciting day”,I told to myself.I struggled to get up and then came Kartik’s call when I was still trying to distinguish my tooth brush from my brother’s,he provided an opportunity for a good start ,he asked me” de kelamibitiya” and I replied “yes,I have bathed too:)”.Yes the best way to start a day is to lie.I had read somewhere that “honesty is the best policy,but to lie is the second best policy”:). I knew I had to get ready within half an hour for the trip to the mystery land of Parvathamalai.I was very excited that to the extent that I woke up on a Saturday morning at 3.30 AM and this definitely can’t explain my excitement in a better way.
Surprisingly Kartik and Guru came on time,I rushed from my home and got into Guru’s car .We had to pick up Nandubutt A.K.A Vinod A.K.A LunduButt(post Parvathamalai trip) and also Murali from perungulathur .Kartik kept the car moving at 80 kmph,with the early morning breeze kissing me ,I thought god must be a woman, may be that’s why we call it mother nature:).We reached peerkankaranai where we waited for Murali to join us,the effect of the early morning kiss from mother nature was so calming that I could easily resist my urge to pounce on yummy puliyodharai. Murali joined us and the five of us started moving towards our destination or may be our destiny.
I was confused on why I am travelling,”I am not a mystery monger,I am not taking this as pilgrimage,then why am I travelling” I asked myself.I was fighting with myself,as we stopped in Mahindra City for tea and photo session.With each click ,the day was getting brighter ,the sun brightened the earth and the smiles brightening our life ,we moved on.Our topic of discussion was diverse,”Naaliaya Iyakunar ” ,a program in kalaingar tv ,sports and a lot more were covered.We stopped in Gingee for taking the medicine for the daily disease “hunger”.The big white tablets with chilly powder was awesome and we commonly call it as idly.With the taste of idly milagaipodi lingering in our tongue,we started moving and soon reached kadladi.We were in total disbelief when 2 strangers ,went out of their way to help us ,they took their bikes ,rode ahead of us taking us to the foothills of parvathamalai.We got down and thanked them,when I thanked I looked into their eyes,I felt they were not strangers,they weren’t strange, they were humans.It’s I who is strange ,I have conditioned myself not believe anyone who helps for free. With all my flaws projecting itself like a film in the screen of my heart ,I managed to smile and say “Thank You”.Smile is a dam,which is very useful when monsoon sets in your eyes and cyclone sets in your heart 
.I looked at the peak from down ,standing near vidobanandha ashram ,the man who did service by providing food for all devotee ,he did that for more than 20 years and free of cost.We were so near ,all we had to do was lift our butt and start moving.
We started climbing up,the greenery was like painting ,we couldn’t take our eyes from that ,”but we could take photos” ,we did that like a ritual, stopping time to time at different places and with each step the path was getting steeper.The multicolored bugs and insects,the soothing breeze,the lush green bushes and trees,the hard rocks ,the magnificent mountain everything was sheer magic.The roots of the trees had drilled through the rocks,my eyes started to look for details in the painting.With legs getting tired and our hearts getting eager, we started moving.A 15 member group from CTS also came to trek there.Halfway through we stopped and the painting started to amaze us even more .The lovely trees with sunlight splitting itself through the leaves, left me wondering about the nature.
We came to a place where the path got steeper and we had to be on our four limbs to climb.We climbed on a rock which had nothing on the other side ,a fall could mean that we will be there to the place where we started , in the sense, the place we started from, before being born:). We had to leave our shoes in Sarasamma tea kadai,to climb the much awaited kadaparai padi and the thandavala padi.You have to climb by holding the iron bars which are centered deep into the rocks and the path was nearly right angled.For some strange reason I never felt scared.Climbing up boosted our adrenaline rush.
I was constantly reminded of two things,beauty and death.We reached the peak ,standing at 4530 feet above ground level,we felt blessed to see something like that.My mind started thinking about the universe once again ,the beauty ,the charm of life in it.We had tasty pongal in the ashram of vidobanandha,I preferred to quit after the first round since it is place where they give food for free and they do this as a service.We Came out and stood on the peak ,soon we witnessed another master stroke the sunlight piercing through the clouds,the drizzle scattering the rays and a patch of land that was brighter than the others as for some reason ,the painter left it without the dark clouds.The drizzle reminded us that we should start moving down as none of us dared to slip from “kadaparai padi”.
The journey downwards was easy and the light began to fade,when we were halfway through it was pitch dark.The stars in the sky made me wonder,can i ever get bored of this ?..never..never ever.With guru speaking about magic tricks and murali speaking about “god” ,the painter we continued to move.I preferred to listen to them.The one thing about guru is he is a kind of alert system,if he stops speaking then we can assume something is wrong .We came to the foothills and started moving to the place where we parked the car.This part was scary as it took long to reach there.May be we moved in the wrong direction or may be we moved without any sense of direction,who cares we reached there.
As we started moving to the restaurant ,I looked back at the peak and felt like one who is breaking up with his lover.All I could think was how stupid we are,we had an option to be smart or to be wise ,we chose to be smart.We are cutting the breast of our mother ,she fed us with everything she had.I thought about the painting ,I just needed to be reminded that I am a part of it,everyone is.When your thoughts are beautiful,your life is a poetry. A journey to places like this makes our thought beautiful.I had begun to view things from a different perspective,I felt like human once more.Once you feel life,you feel divine.By the time I was aware of my thoughts,I was already far from parvathamalai .I still looked back once again,hoping I would get a glimpse of the peak that taught me some lessons, all I could see was a land with no trees,highway with no greenery.I looked up at the sky,the stars made me think ” the painting is well preserved somewhere else …”.Lot of things were said about this place,some miracles ,some mystery.I can’t say if they are true are not ,but this place does have magic in it,it shows you that ,it casts the spell in your heart and for some reason,I never felt scared climbing the peak.If I had slipped to death, I would have kissed my beloved before dying ……
Some good Clicks
