There and Back Again

Just once in a while,one of those nights rolls around the corner into your life.They are full of these moments when you can almost hear the contentment flowing drip-drip-drip into your soul,leaving it feeling strangely clean and pure and whole and strong,ready for new days and new battles.

It was well into the evening, there in Ravangla.Our jeep had trundled into the small mountain hamlet in Sikkim a few hours ago,and since then I had realized that my movements were going to be severely restricted,given the frequency of power-cuts and torrential downpours here in this unreliable mountain terrain.I was sitting in front of the window in the tiny log cabin room,slightly despondent,hoping that the next day would offer a clear view of the snowy peaks.Before me stretched Ravangla in the valley,our hotel right at the edge of the cliff.On the closest crest of a mountaintop I could see a pinprick of light twinkling amiably,somebody told me that that was the house of the richest man in the locality.

I could never see these many stars in the city.I felt like I could,with the touch of a fingertip,pull the inky velvet of the sky away,and reveal the wide expanse of light below,which seemed to be shining out through a million holes in the fabric.My eye was drawn to a distant reddish glow in the valley.It was a bonfire,and from what I could make out,children had gathered around it after the skies cleared to warm their hands and sing their hearts out.I could make out a few stray tunes.I could make out the sound of frequent laughter.The mountains all around were clumps of darkness,blacker than the night,and here and there,lights shone out like stray jewels,signaling a lone hut or a moving car.

I felt like I had been let in on a secret,had been handed a talisman that was now cradled in my palm.Beauty had come to me unbidden,had whispered into my ear,and it did not even occur to me to hold her fast except in the corner of my eye.I muttered my gratitude into my pillow that night,I knew not to whom.Words that I had heard long ago hit me in a sudden flash of comprehension.'Never lose your sense of wonder,child,never stop being alive to the life throbbing around you;it is a strange world,a beautiful world,and you never know what might be around the next bend in the road.'