It has been a week of cloudy skies, muted sun and intermittent showers clearing the dust off the trees. While sipping my coffee, I look out of the window, it has become my favourite activity since the pandemic started, it gives you a rare peek into life as it is going by.

I like the clean green colour outside; the trees also seem happy with the wash they have got. I long to travel, go to the mountains or by the sea, surrounded by nature and tranquillity. But I know that travel is not on the cards this year and who knows what next year will bring along.

Don’t make plans, just live in the moment, that’s one of the lessons that the pandemic has taught us in big bold letters. But the heart still longs, you can’t stop it from longing. Longing for beauty and experiences that have touched its heart while travelling.

There is nothing like witnessing a sunrise in the mountains, with the clouds engulfing you, the sun trying hard to peak through it, the cold morning chill seeping into your bones, longing for the warm touch of the morning sun.

The clouds move around in careless abandon, teasing you and mesmerising you. For a moment it succeeds too, you forget the chill that you were feeling a moment ago, you look at the magical moment created by nature, you are immersed in it, the beauty fills your heart up and then in the next moment the sun manages to come up and the clouds shyly float away. This is what I remember from my last trip before the pandemic took over the world.

Satkhol in Uttrakhand

I am glad my last trip was in the mountains, if this is the last memory to hold onto for a long time then I am glad that it is this one which I witnessed in a village called Satkhol in Uttrakhand.

I remember Poo, a beautiful furry angel in black and white, kind and loving, I guess that’s why they had named him Poo. I along with a group of few other people was there only for few days but he had integrated us into his pack, coming along with us wherever we went, wanting to make sure that we didn’t get lost.

I remember the clean, crisp mountain air, it does something to you, clears up your head, makes you more poetic and makes you look at life with mountain tinted glasses. It makes you calm; it makes you spiritual, there is a kind of stillness it instils in you. Ah, I love that feeling. It is kind of difficult to experience this when you are living in the middle of a chaotic city with traffic noise, pollution, people, and construction work going on everywhere. Someday I want to live in the mountains, and I know I will.

The Retreat Bhimtal

For the second part of my trip, I stayed at a homestay run by a generous lady. It was an old big British bungalow with history written all over it- The Retreat.

The old-time charm hiding away on top of a hill, trying its best to be what it was, a quaint beautiful house full of cheerful sounds. The first day I met the lady of the house, her European friend and their kids and they were all girls. It felt like a scene out of a Jane Austen novel, I was thrilled to meet so many interesting women and listen to their talks during lunch, they made me feel completely at home.

They all were animal lovers, rescuing and taking care of as many animals as they could and finding homes for puppies and abandoned animals. The house was big, the garden around it was  bigger and their heart was the biggest. Dogs, cats were merrily walking in and out of the house like rightful owners. A newly brought in puppy was going around chewing everything he could reach. He even gave me a taste of it when I was sitting in the garden and having my morning tea.

Lost & Found in a Forest

The following morning I went for a long walk in the nearby forest area trying to follow the map hand drawn by the lady of the house. But once inside the forest all pathways seemed the same, I was lost. Knowing that I couldn’t do much, I sat on a boulder and soaked in the sounds of the forest, it was rejuvenating.

Then out of nowhere, two school kids came to my rescue, they were crossing the forest and going to the next village where they lived. I requested them to show me the way out and they sheepishly agreed. I quietly tried to keep pace with their naughty carefree steps.

How I turned vegan

Back to the bungalow in the evening, dinner was served early. The big dining table seemed to have hosted many happy occasions. The women, the kids of all ages joined for dinner. I noticed that all the kids were vegan, but their mothers weren’t, when I asked them about it, the kids told me about their love for animals and the rescue and adoption work they did regularly and so it was natural for them to be vegan.

I was touched and inspired to hear young kids talk with so much conviction about their strong beliefs. Maybe this generation will be a consciously living generation. I had been following a vegetarian diet for a long time and had been contemplating about turning vegan and these kids ushered me into it unknowingly. Or maybe the universe had conspired for this meeting to happen.

If I get a chance I would love to go back and stay at the same places again, meet the same people who shared their lives and stories with me, even though it was a short one it had a lasting impact.

I think when we know that something is fleeting or will exist only for a short time, we put a lot of heart into it. The pandemic has also taught us that everything is fleeting, all we have is now, this moment in all its glory and ugliness, what we make of this moment is all that matters.

That’s how a moment turns into a beautiful memory, a memory that we can fall back on when all we have is a view from the window.

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