Day 5 - What is the coolest thing you ever saw.

This prompt makes me think. Really hard. What is the coolest thing you ever saw? - Is it just one single solitary thing you saw that you have to blog about? How is it possible for anyone to record one "coolest thing? - May be it is possible. To me, floods of "coolest things" come to mind. From early childhood memories to the ones as recent as yesterday - the laundry list keeps growing as I think. But I'll randomly rattle about a few of the things.

The first thing that comes to mind is the Peak in Alps, dubbed as 'Top of Europe"- Jungfraujoch. (I shall blog in first person singular, to accommodate ease of narration though the trip involved my family) So, on a fateful summer morning, I took a train to this out of the world place. Initially, all that met the eyes was like a verbal blessing translated into a pictorial. Every bit of land was filled with the most colorful array of flowers - wild ones, the lush green grass formed the second layer and it was topped off with icy glaciers. It was like trick photography that made me wonder if it was photo shopped to create that effect - But no - it was God's language at it's best - unfolding in the form of mesmerizing nature. Then I got to the peak. There was a place, on top of a big building - where we could walk out to experience the crisp air of Alps - the top of Europe. I walked out, and was met by an unexpected down pour of Snow, which makes me realize that this was quiet literally the coolest thing I saw,Mid summer, mid noon. - To a small, tropical town girl form the warm south of Indus the out pour of snow was like a make believe land from story books coming fluidly alive. It was too forceful to enjoy, specially since I was under dressed for the occasion. I ducked under my hooded, but 'falling short for the need' jacket and pulled my scarf tightly around my neck while cupping my palm over my eyes to accommodate vision in that thick snow fall. Instinct or pure folly made me look up to see where the magic was unfolding from and in the cloud of that haze, a single flake ended on my lips, seeping into my being. If all the 'bottled water' world boasts about mountain springs and the way they taste - they do it for a reason. That single flake flooded my inside like an elixir, making me alive with the electric connection of nature. As much as I marvel over intricately constructed towers and bridges and feel very inferior about my own creative abilities, I felt that there is no replacing, recreating, or imitating God's magnum opus - the canvas of nature, with critters and creeks, mountains and glaciers, weeds and tulips. I walked out of the enchanted world of 'blessings from the cool heavens' changed for ever. For connecting with the power of nature is a transformation for good.

This would not end anytime soon...the journey of "coolest things I saw" but I am glad that I kept the commitment and wrote about one, if not many - that, in an odd way, justifies the prompt.

Signing off in deep thought - I have quiet a few reminiscences to gather that blessed my vision and impressed my heart.

Celebration

Every time I wonder -
If my Birthday made me wiser?
If it made me grow up,
Without growing old.
Each passing year,
I cherish being here,
Being among
The near and dear.
Each candle blown,
Makes an impression of its own!
Teaching lessons tiny,
Making the world shiny!
This could be a crisis,
Hitting hard and strong-
In the form of a limerick
A few lines too long!
Loads of thanks
For all the clicks,
All the stops you make -
It breathes life
Into my doodling words.
Lifting my spirit upwards.

Thanks to all my supporters, well wishers, family and friends for all the love and encouragement. This blog is my temple of thoughts and all your blessing go a long way!- and apologies for a dud of a poem (if I may call it that! ;)

Day 1 - The object I see at this exact moment.

    Before I start off with my September blogging journey, I would like to tell you all something about the theme of this challenge. - It is all about "Eyes" and there are some really interesting prompts that could pulverize the worst of blogger blocks :-) So here goes the very first - The object that I see at this exact moment.

     Twenty years ago, I saw this object, for the first time in my life - oddly amused by the resemblance it had with the modest black and white television our family owned, and little did I realize, or predict the way this small screen would become an integral part of my everyday. Back then, the curious high schooler did all she could to meddle with the object, holding the key down to see the letter appear all over the screen. There were general opinions about how knowing how to type would help you with the object. Of course, when I first set my eyes on it, I didn't really understand the relationship it had with knowing how to type, but being the daughter of a type master, I did punch in the keys faster than the rest of my gang - a quality that made me have an 'ace Pascal progammer' air around me. It did take the computer sir's "This program will blast the computer" feedback to realize I was not yet ready to write code. Thankfully, I never aspired to write code - I did, however aspire to write, in plain old letters and words and this very object helped me realize that childhood dream of mine.

     My computer, be it the laptop I am using right now, or the ultra sexy iPad my friend gifted me, opens me up to a world I would not have discovered otherwise. I do pretty much everything once I am logged on - from connecting with friends, reading the news, listening to music to watching my favorite recipes being made by star chefs, reading reviews of the movies I plan to watch on weekends to doing what fulfills me like nothing else - Blogging! :-) One click and I connect to this magical world of words, where I write and publish all that crosses my mind, meaningful, meaningless and everything in between. It connects me to poems from grade school, with detailed critical analysis in tow, and an encyclopedia that appears and disappears as and when I summon it - unlike the cumbersome, edifice of a volume that collected dust on our antique book case in my childhood home. This object is truly a friend, a time pass, and my window to the world.

     Speaking of windows, I see another object right across the room, atop this very screen - which happens to be the other window, the real window, that somehow enhances the beauty of this virtual window. A  window with wooden blinds, faded from the fierce west sun that penetrates through the blinds. A window that showcases the neighbor's blooming cherry in all its glory - almost like a channel on TV,depicting seasons. I see the deep burgundy leaves turning a dull brown, falling all over the place, soon baring a skeleton of brittle looking branches - and when spring springs, it sprouts dainty little leaves and billions of blooms that hide those dainty little leaves - like a pink fest - then the green photoshops in nature to this wonderful wine hue. Life seems to pretty much revolve around what I see in this window to the world and that actual window that opens me up to my own world, the world I live in - my neighborhood, my surroundings and my yard. The scenes keep changing, reminding me of the change that is constant, the perspective gives me many a view,opening me up to all the different angles people see to the same thing and thus making me more sensitive to the things and visuals I might not see or choose to see from my perspective. Both these objects, enhance the life I live, hopefully making me better at living it to the fullest.