One of the things I love about India is that every state feels like a new country. The food is different, the people are different, the local dialect is different, and the way Mother Nature drapes herself across the landscape also takes on different nuances and shapes.
After six months in one location (which is possibly the longest time I have managed to spend anywhere for quite some time), I feel a bit like the new kid on the block here in the gorgeous Kumaon Valley. From a room with a view of the street, I am now tucked away on a hillside with a view that extends to China and Nepal on a clear day. Instead of or as well as flies, there are butterflies dancing in the forest and rare orchids dripping down rock faces.
From being able to pop across the road for chocolate whenever I needed a fix, or down the street to subzi warrior queens for add ons while I am cooking to a killer uphill hike to the local shop. From the incessant noise of living inside Choti Basti where the kids are screaming the men are shouting and the dogs are barking to the absolute stunning stillness of a distant valley.
My early morning sounds of the switch switch, switch of the Choti Basti street sweepers has been replaced by the peeps and cheeps and calls of the birds in the Valley. It’s all gorgeous and fairy tale like but I am allowed to miss stuff right?
So yeah I miss my little girlfriend gang interrupting my work every afternoon, I miss the subzi warrior queens and the way they would save me the freshest vegetables or bring me curry leaves from their own garden and never charge me. I miss being known, I guess.
But there is another side to being in a new place on planet earth, there is that delicious thrill of wonder when you stand at the top of a hill and look down at the world at your feet in the soft twilight when the lights twinkle like stars scattered carelessly from the heavens.
There is that delicious feeling that is like star burst in your belly that tingles through your bloodstream like lemonade, fizzes across your face into a smile of deep satisfaction and sinks somewhere into your soul for lifetimes to come. I stood there for a minute or two and delighted in the bliss of being alone, then thought about the leopards that still roam these hills and hurried home down the forest paths to my pretty pink room.
PHOTO CREDITS: kew.org, oktatagoodbye.com, indianwildlife.org