Nature's child

    From when I was a child, I try to connect with the trees, birds singing from the depths of forests, various insects and animals. This connection is ineffable. Every now and then I get flashbacks of my first Kashmir visit in 2022, a time spent in close communion with nature. Even before the trip, I knew this place was going to change my whole perspective. It was not as if I did not visit the mountains before, but there was something different about Kashmir. A canopy of pain and sadness clouded my mind, as I returned home.

    First glance of the ocean of colorful tulips gently swaying in the wind, is crystal clear in my mind. I close my eyes and find myself sauntering in the flower beds. In the center of the tulip field, was this beautiful willow tree with drooping golden-green leaves and people sitting beneath it in quiet repose. The memory has been etched in my mind forever, only getting clearer as the days pass. Now, I understand how Wordsworth felt after returning from the fields of daffodils. Just as the vibrant daffodils flash on his "inward eye", so do the myriads of tulips on mine. How I wished to spend more time, adoring the flower valleys, snow-capped mountains with fumes of ice twirling into the stillness, bushy Himalayan animals, and the huge deodars. Every moment with nature is blissful. I breathed in the sweet, soaky mountainous smell and the essence of it still lingers in my cells, never dying. As I look back, for the brief moments I spend in wilderness till today, are those which paint a smile on my face. Urban life doesn't appeal me. Tall trees, kissing the skies, are much better than high-rise buildings, which are built on the earth once belonging to the trees, only to suffice people's needs. What type of progress are we really making, by killing the beings which contribute to the wellness of the environment instead? Oh, I would forever rush to the mountains, and beaches.

    I am a hard-core animal lover. And can't resist from petting street cats, dogs, and even the pet ones. I used to have two pet cats. Now they exist only in my memory. They want nothing but love. They indeed have their own language. Just because they don't speak in the same language as us, doesn't mean they they don't get hurt whenever people beat them. I see them getting brutally abused and thrashed, and my heart cries out for them. I see a decaying body of an animal  on road and pray for their journey in the after world. 

    People who find solace in nature, and in company of animals differ emotionally than others. We feel too much, so much that it hurts. We cry when we see a flower bloom, or a sun set. Yes, we do exist, carrying the unexpressed emotions of Mother Nature. What really are we?...Made of the same elements the trees and animals are made of. Every living being shall perish one day, dissolve in the environment to be born again. Nature runs a vast cycle throughout, and we are just a part of it. My problems and my existence is nothing to the vastness out there. Forever a worshipper of nature.