Thursday, August 26, 2010

Being home

I cross the dewy grass to get to my favourite perch on the wood bench. It has been a long day and the prospect of silence tempts me.. I can see some committed joggers and dog walkers in the distance, but they don't venture onto the grass and I have the place to myself for now. The collective humming of the garden insects and the warm July evening is soporific..I am tempted to put down my pen and stretch on the bench.
Green. Quiet. Mingled scent of the summer evening damp and tall trees. Trees that I cannot identify. Though I know that a few of them definitely belong to the conifer family..Strains of an Indian song in my mind. Faint after-taste of tortilla chips lingering on my tongue.....A solitary squirrel bounding back and forth from this bench to the tree..I haven't brought my cellphone with me and I lose track of time. I have long broken the habit of carrying it around..the only facility I use is the airtelcallhome' really. A couple I don't know walk past and acknowledge me with a nod. Brethren in a strange land :)The fireflies start to glow..a sign that I should head home and see to dinner. And yet, the sunlight continues to linger..
We sit in silence some more..me and the unfamiliarity. I like this distance now, it keeps me from expectation to behave in a certain way..like an indulgence to a child. Eventually I'll blend..perhaps irrevocably. But for now, I am good, as they say :)
A distant roar of three dudes racing bikes shakes me out of my reverie and I head for home. Home and yet so far away from home..