Monday, January 02, 2012

A peaceful end to a great year



We had a lovely week at S's mother's village, deep in the Malnad region. Crisp, cool nights and sunny, clear days, with nearly nothing to do all day. If anyone enjoyed herself thoroughly, it was Puttachi. She played with her cousins and the other kids, jumped, screamed, danced, and more than anything, ran. And she ate lots of bananas so she could feed the peels to the cows. She loved the cows, especially the little calf so much, that she would have even spent the night there in the cowshed if we'd let her. As it is, she sat down in some muck trying to hug the calf.

She fed puffed rice to the big fat fish in the river Tunga that flows behind the house, she drew water from the well, ate off banana leaves, and watched in fascination as they used a big stone mortar and pestle to grind food.

And I? I discovered timelessness. I now know what they mean by time standing still. Time refused to move. It would feel like its been hours since I awoke, yet, it would be just ten o clock in the morning. And it wasn't as if I got bored during those long, sluggish hours. I was very much involved in activities like looking at the sky. And for most of the time, I did not even know, nor did I really care what the time was.

But I'm glad to be back.

And I wish you all a wonderful year.
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9 comments:

Radhika said...

A Very Happy New Year to you and your family!
Waav! A house by the river side. You very lucky to have relatives there :-)

PeeVee said...

That sounds lovely!!

A reader said...

Hey which part of Malnad are you talking about? my granparents stay in a village near Koppa.. wanted to know if it was anywhere close :)

austere said...

Beautiful!
Wish you too.

Viky said...

A very Happy new year to you, Shru... Have a good one!

Shruthi said...

Radhika, yeah :)

Peevee, it was!

A reader, actually, very close!

Austere, thanks!

Viky, thank you!

www.ChiCha.in said...

hii..

Nice Post Great job.

Thanks for sharing.

An old timer who shut her blog said...

Sigh. Malnad does that to you doesn't it? The old houses, the gardens, the animals, the flowing river. Everything about what you've said reminds me that I need to do something to get close to that world.

Unknown said...

Hello,
Thnsk for tis good post.
I love this blog

Travlet India

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