As usual, I took a break today to look at some old photos. You know how it is – look at one, and it triggers a few more albums…and memories that surround the photos.
Today I was looking at our Dharamsala trip photos.
What a lovely trip it was – we covered so much in six days! The whole trip came about like this. Vidur actually had ten days without an exam.
Sury was to travel to Chandigarh for a student’s viva and suggested that we all go – since we had no idea when our next trip together might happen. Who knew that our next trip together would be back to the same place, but this time to enrol Vidur there!
Anyhoo, we had a rather glorious trip and I relived the days, remembering conversations and places as I scrolled through the photos – about 2000 of them. As you can tell, I couldn’t get enough of the place!
I lost count of the number of times we said “if only paati was here!” When we saw the snow clad mountains..when we visited the temples, when we saw the gorgeous lakes, the landscape…why, even when we checked into our room, we noticed there was enough space for all four of us and sort of pretended you were there.
We reminsiced about that lovely trip south when we stayed in the railways guest house with the massive luxurious room overnight! We played snakes and ladders – wow. What fun that was! We had cleverly left our luggage in the luggage locker which was on the same platform as the train we were taking back home, so that it would be easier to lug around.
As we relaxed by the French window watching the morning mist lift to welcome the sun’s rays, we thought about all those days – and carried you in spirit to all the places we saw and enjoyed each day.
The moment we missed you most was the highlight of our trip, when we met The Dalai Lama. That was pure magic.
I always smile to myself about our fantasy of settling down in a house up in the mountains ever since we saw that pretty house up the slope of the hill. Not that we ever hoped to afford something like that, but who cared about that? We enjoyed the “dream”. As we often liked to say – sometimes the process of fantasizing is so much more fun than accomplishment! So many possibilities, so many variations. Sour grapes never tasted so good!
Except, that fantasy doesn’t seem so much like an impossibility.
Except, I am not sure if we’ll follow through with that.
Because, sometimes when we pause to think, and review what we want, even small doses seem enough and bring contentment.
Because, we’ve learned to appreciate the small things.
Like, even half a cuppa coffee.
6 thoughts on “Pause”
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I feel like I’m missing a major aspect of your blog. And pardon my ignorance, but who is Mi? A close relative no doubt. I feel a little intrusive sneaking into these memories of such an obviously special person!
The writing class is going well, actually we haven’t met again since I started reading your blog. We meet on Wednesday nights. Tomorrow we will workshop 4 of my classmates writing projects. My writing project (the one you can see snippets of on my blog, if you’re reading me) will be workshopped next Wednesday and then classes are done. Thanks for asking!
🙂 Nate, no need to stress over it! Mi is my Mom. I started this blog in Feb 2010 when she passed away because I missed her so much. Still do. She was a very special person, indeed. And because you asked the question, today’s post is “Why Mi” 🙂
Good to hear about your class. Must be so interesting to get to read and critique other peoples’ writing – there must be a lot to learn!
And yes, of course I am reading your blog! I tend to do a marathon catching up, as you’ll see.
Did I say I am happy to see you here?
Lovely read.:)
Cheers,
Sriram & Krithiga
What are all the places you visited? Lovelymemories for sure,
Cheers,
Sriram& Krithiga
🙂 Thank you! We went to Mohali and from there, taxi-ed to Dharamsala, which we used as a base to visit various places. We visited Mcleodganj of course, then we also went to Chamunda Devi, Jawalamukhi, Baglamukhi temple, Chintpurni/Chinnamastika Shakti Peeth, Brajeshwari Devi/Kangra Devi , Norbulingka centre of Tibetan culture and arts, Kangra Art Museum, Kotwali Bazar, Dharamshala War Memorial, Kunal Pathri temple, Baijnath temple, Dal lake, Bhagsu Nag, St.Johns Church, went through the tea gardens, the Gopalpur Zoo, and Naddi. I think I listed everything we saw…but wouldn’t be surprised if I left something out ! 🙂 It was a fabulous trip and I took lots of photos! Oh we also spent some time at the cricket stadium there!
So many.Gr8.Thanks for replying.