Today I attended a celebration with my friends. A celebration of a close friend who is going to be wed to her beloved!
The momentous, fun-filled evening which only grew to be wilder and crazier, proved to be an experience of a lifetime. Not that it was extremely outer world-like or eye-opening in any sane way, but it did reinforce some deeper thoughts and emotions that some of us had been struggling to position in priority within our individual minds.
Our friend of a several years, is absolutely in shape for one of the most memorable steps in her life. The early symptoms of the precarious, cold feet have eased out of her mind and the strong-rooted veins of responsibility have been gradually making home in her heart. She, who has mostly , always been level-headed in her ways has found what will just add more strength, texture and color to the warps and woofs of her own life :)) And the feeling that occupies her aura is mostly that of subtle contentment and a deep conviction at multiple levels. Which according to many, can definitely constitute to the raw but stable beginnings of a new marriage!
As the evening progressed into enjoyment, amusement and climaxed into laughter and hearty conversations, we grew more aware of what marriage can substantiate to in many of our lives. What I derived is that marriage can certainly not qualify as a 'destination' and least of all a 'milestone', but rather is just a 'way-point' in your yet to be explored travel itinerary! Well that certainly relaxed my guts a bit on the whole frontier that I had been building up towards marriage.
I mean, if you treat marriage as a way-point in your life's travels, you can most assuredly give up the fears that accompany the feeling of it being an end destination or boundary stop, no? "End of bachelorhood", "Game-over", "An overload of responsibilities" ,,, Most of these notorious adages would then sound like a faint rattling in the distance. Once your vehicle makes through this way-point, you just enter into a usual world of more way-points, some more ordinary milestones and maybe some extra-ordinary en-route destinations. Nothing that you wouldn't pass otherwise, it's just a slightly different path you would traverse due to the presence and influence of a whole different set of people (& forces) in the journey of your life.
As we descended the high (fun) point of the evening into some of these deeper emotional exchanges, we eased into a comfortable territory of enlightened awareness. It made me ponder on just how much of what we exactly wanted. I derived the answers to some of my own questions and we bid goodbye with a pocketful of some thought-provoking take-aways :)
The evening was a great mix of lighthearted fun and deep-rooted conversational exchanges with a high dosage of emotional bonding among friends!
And to my soon to be wedded friends, Cheers to a lifetime of excitement and discovery .. as you grow older together with each other!! You guys are right, "The best is still to come" :))
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Realization!
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
My 2008 trip back home to India
(I had this post written and published in early February 2008 and just recently transferred it from an older blog to out here)
After months of delays, I will finally be traveling to Mumbai at the end of this week for my long due vacation. Excitement has always been an understatement to describe my feelings associated with this trip. It's always a whirlpool of emotions that get stirred up with visiting one's home, being received into the eager arms of your people, being greeted by the kind faces of your kin, seeing the sights that date back to your childhood and feeling the warmth of being back in that place that you will always call your very own.
It's the journey you want to take back into time, hoping that it has stood still for your return :) And yet you know that time has flown by at the instance you lay your foot on the warm soils of your homeland. The population, their pace, the structures and all their collective energy will have acquired so many strange and different forms that they will be near unrecognizable to you, who had left them behind in what was probably a far more familiar state. And then you start wondering whether you can ever belong back to your homeland with same intimacy that you had half a dozen years ago.
But amidst all the unfamiliarity of sights, chaos of voices and conflicts in your mind, you slowly start recognizing a striking familiarity. It's the familiarity of emotions flowing from those loving hearts, the simplicity of the feelings in those unchanged minds and the peace in the secure embraces of every man, woman or child you had ever shared your memories with.
Well, I get this feeling every time I return for my brief vacation. It takes me a good amount of time to get used to the overwhelm at first. There are so many sights and breaths to intake and get a hang of, yet you are left asking for more and more :) And then when I have gradually settled into a lukewarm pool of acceptance, familiarity and generosity, I find out that its time to return to where I came from.
The question I ask is, how many years of separation would I need to exchange in return for the bliss of my own home. Whatever that figure maybe, someday I hope to have made it to this place I have always known as my very own :)
With lots of nostalgia
-Michelle
Friday, December 4, 2009
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
At the 'heel of Italy' - the Region of Puglia
Italy among it's fascinating cities and towns, has nestled a rare architectural site, right at it's heel!
Yes, imagine Italy to be a shapely leg whose foot is shod by a Manalo Blahnik high-heeled boot. Puglia (Apulia) is Italy's elegant stiletto heel.
Region: Puglia in Italy, exceptionally sun-soaked and dry, rarely frequented by English-speaking travelers
Town : Alberobello, designated as a UNESCO world heritage site
Attraction: Trulli structures - collection of some 1,500 trulli
Trullo - A very peculiar type of building, beehive-shaped, whitewashed structure made of stone, usually used as barns in farming areas within the Val d'Itria, but also used as housing in fairly large-scale communities like Alberobello, where over 1000 Trulli are situated on terraces. The original Trulli date back hundreds, if not thousands of years, but the curious style has been revived by modern homeowners in the area, resulting in Trulli resorts for visitors
A row of trullo structures
Inside a trullo house
Wikitravel guide: http://wikitravel.org/en/Alberobello
Map it @ http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=hphot4&cp=40.785669~17.235374&style=h&lvl=10&tilt=-90&dir=0&explore=sst.0~tag.wikipedia
The rest of Puglia is exotic in many ways, partly due to its historical evolution, but also because socially and culturally. Puglia has been catching up to the rest of Italy in attracting the modern tourist. As you explore Puglia's cities and towns, and outlying areas, you will encounter Greek and Roman ruins, paleo-christian ruins, and public and ecclesiastical buildings done in every major style from Romanesque, to Gothic to Renaissance. 
And now that I have been reminded about Puglia, Italy, there is also Venice, Capri and Sorrento that I would like to write about.... coming soon!
