Monday, June 27, 2005

 
Dance of the Restless Wind
© Sanjay Maya Mukherjee

I live atop a hill; a hill that is serene and restless at the same time. Serene and restless at the same time - how can that be, you might well wonder. Well, it’s like so. The hill is actually a mesa. For those who don’t know, a mesa is a flat, elevated table land with one or more cliff-like or steep sides. While there isn’t any ‘cliff’ in our mesa, there is something of a steep side. It’s the closest I’ll ever get to living on a mesa in this town, so a mesa it is.

Now this mesa stands proud in the village of Dhayari, some distance off the Sinhgad Road. It is developing as a township with apartments and the like. The drive up to the township is winding through the hill. Once you reach the top, you can see the city below you towards the east. Khadakwasla Lake and Sinhgad set the stage for an intense sunset down the western front. If you stand on the northern ridge you will find yourself staring up at the neighboring mountains, while in the south you have an expanse of open land leading up to distant hills. Being a mountain man, I feel right at home in this part of Pune.

Every morning, I go down from my apartment to a breakfast on the promenade with sweeping winds kissing me good morning. Every evening you can take a stroll down the hillside or around the township and breath in the fresh air waltzing around your senses. Every night you can bathe in the moonlight and gaze at the city lights sprawled across the wide eastern expanse.

When the rains come a-calling, this mesa is the center of a cosmic dance of such power and grace that it leaves you gasping in amazement. The wind gets stronger till you are but a sapling dancing in a whirlwind. The sky thickens with the rage of a thousand frustrated clouds and through that ominous blanket you glimpse strands of white brilliance snake through towards the earth, eager to strike with forked tongues. And then the cannons thunder across the mountains, announcing that life is on its way down from the heavens.

As I was saying, the mountains are serene on any given day. And yes the mountains are restless on the same given day.
posted by Sanjay Maya 4:48 AM