Sounds of Serenity

Actually it's the start of a new month and i thought i would have lots to say after the reunion and that it is going to be a blog filled with fun and laughter and lots of pictures of going berserk...animated discussions on catching up on lost times...hugs...and more hugs.
But all i can say is maybe i was unlucky.Maybe i took all the Facebook planning seriously...maybe i was just too hopeful.It so happened that no one except me and this other friend who was having her book launch there, turned up.
But i cannot say however that my trip came to nothing because i had three missions of which only one remained unfulfilled but the rest in a way compensated for the loss to such an extent that i can be happy about my trip.2 out of 3 is definitely not a bad score...maybe i cannot say my trip was perfect but definitely justified.
So this blog should turn me towards what i can really talk about with happiness.Although i have been meaning to for quite a while, i think today is best.



(when proceeding to the next link ie www.costaricabirds.com... which is also sound based kindly pause this music as this will continue and you will not be able to hear nature's true symphony)

As i am on to my next nature trip i can't help but acknowledge what happened to me on my last trip to Coorg which erupted something in me which was not quite dead but dormant actually. i had been bereft of listening to

nature at it's best. That which is serene and the rejuvenating . These sounds of nature i realised i had forgotten and was now missing so badly.
The gentle rustle of leaves in the breeze, sounds of rare birds, crickets as they hummed in the coffee and spice plantations was what Coorg offered me amidst breathtaking lush green landscapes.
It was here that i heard after a really long time the natural sound of nightfall and the breaking of the dawn.For the homestay that i had chosen was away from the main town right into the midst of Coffee and spice plantations.
Since i am poor at capturing skills i can best rely on this blogger once again called Karthick to give the best of Coorg in his own special way http://karthikclicks.blogspot.com/2008/09/among-coffee-beans-and-pepper-trees-in.html

i can only talk about how i understood my true nature here in Coorg amidst all the spectacular natural beauty and the music of nature.
Dense green vegetation here with Silver Oaks, (looking sort of sanitized) Eucalyptus, Black wood, Rose wood, Benteak, Indian Kino tree, Flame of the forest and lots of thick bamboo thickets everywhere.i may not be able to list the variety but i know how pleased i was to gorge my eyes on all the trees and all the flora typically abundant in the hills.
Found the sounds of nature mysterious and enigmatic and very soothing. Some call of the birds i had never heard before would force me to look into the direction where i would desperately try to spot the bird.
The creaking of the bamboo as the slender but sturdy branches rubbed against each other would make me stop talking as i would try to figure out the rhythm or if they had some unheard off beat to this kruck!kruck!. i realised it was the most amazing jazz of sorts and that i should just listen as much as i can for soon i would be in a position to hear them in my thoughts only.
i wished then to capture it all. i wished then to be a photographer or perhaps a naturalist who would go on dwelling in such locales studying, observing , learning and staying connected to nature in a way that would cure me of all the blasphemy and the cacophony so much typical of a busy metropolitan.

i guess i am ready now to distinguish between want and need.To distinguish between the fake and the real.To appreciate the sounds of silence.
Submitting to where i do not belong i guess i am ready to go back to my roots which i have vehemently denied all this while.Madly trying to fit in, aping what is not mine,conforming to what i am most uncomfortable with i guess i am a poor lost soul who is looking for a haven which exits and yet i have ignored it all this while.
A creature of this earth and so comfortable with nature which allows me to be me i wish i could walk into the woods and never come back.Never come back to the city with it's honking sounds, the din of which drowns the music that i my heart craves and my ears yearn to hear.

i am unable to decide what beckons me to what city dwellers call THE WILD. Whether it is that image of raindrops on the leaves looking like diamonds as sunlight fell on them or was it the pitter patter sound of rains falling softly on the lush green vegetation.So is it the sight or the sound?

i want to wake up to the call of birds and rustle of trees and to watch when that MAGIC happens. When everything standing still gets a signal from some unknown source and it springs to action, to movement, to an invisible rhythm which is the harbinger of life.Maybe these dissonant anthems that i am desperate to hear would be like this http://www.costaricanbirds.com/Sound%20Poem2.htm (Don't be in a hurry and listen to what i am listening as when you open this link and start to read the sounds will slowly surprise you) . Maybe i might not get to hear all of this and more but whatever it will be will not yell me into a startling wakefulness.It may not replace the gentle soothing words of Ma when she would come with tea and caress me and say ,''Badki uth ja beta Suraj devta chadh aaye hain" (Badki get up child the Sun God is already high in the sky) but definitely it will caress me enough to open my eyes slowly and familiarise myself with it's soft symphony.
It will be the kind of music that i want to wake up to and then later at bedtime something similar should lull me to sleep.Something that resembles these dissonant sounds and not the blabber on TV and the incessant sounds of traffic on the road that never sleeps.

When Paul Simon wrote this song called 'Sounds of Silence' i read somewhere that he never assumed it to have any meaning but to me this song now has a profound meaning.i can relate it to the stream of conciousness that i am drifting into.
Restless and troubled with the cacophony, we have become accustomed too and are addicted to a whole lot more as technology advances , i am scared we are soon going to be hearing impaired.
i want to shut out these and instead turn to the sound of nature which in every way is the sound of silence.When we for once can remain aloof to our own phoney voices and our silly gizmos and just listen to what nature is desperately trying to tell us.That it is in her lap that we will eventually find all that solace that we are looking for and not in these artificial gizmos and gadgets that offer nothing more than just some temporary artificial beat which we outgrow so effortlessly and so quickly.Can or has anyone outgrown a mothers caress as she tries each time to soothe our stress or tensions away? Maybe that is why when we are in distress the only word that echoes is Ma! Ma!!

Also while we try to cling on to these artificial man made sounds here again the one that holds us is that one which beats the same lub dub lub dub of our own beating hearts.
As these play and mostly in our hearts while we try to correlate our senses with music don't we often see ourselves in a wide field of golden wilderness or perhaps along the vast stretches of some water body , maybe a lake or stream or even ocean? Or perhaps wander in a rain forest surrounded amidst the glitter of jaded green or emerald green? Think about this next time when you listen to some symphony.In your mind's eye you would be visualising nature itself, in a way that pleases you the most.
i know this time i'm really listening to the sounds of silence.Are you ...?



Image courtesy:http://www.fotosearch.com
                       :http://www.istockphoto.com