#NaturesFriend and the age of Innocence

April 08, 2014 8 Comments

I just returned home from a long day at work. It was tiring and sapping day. As I stepped inside my house, my warm and sultry, rented house in Mumbai Suburbia, my mother looked at the sweaty me and with great concern asked- Shall I switch on the AC so you feel better?

It was indeed hot and a cool breeze would be most yearned possession then. That moment I longed for opening all the windows in my house, all the walls of my house and ceilings open to let some natural breeze flow by. I wanted to open my windows to a strong branch of a tall green tree which is filled with green leaves, juicy -ripened fruits, a sparrow singing songs in her nest made of twigs. No AC, no Fan, No cooler no artificial cool air, nothing. I wanted some pure natural wind to flow by and sooth my soul, my dry senses, my weary skin that is devoid of greenery, fresh air and all that glory that nature bestows on humans. Alas! Is it a price that I am paying for growing old and educated?

I ached for a cool rain shower but with all my education I knew, that no matter what I become, I cannot make skies to thunder and create drizzle on my window pane. I missed the tintinnabulations of rain against my window like Ustad Amjad Ali khan playing Santor. I turned on my radio for some music. It was playing this famous song by legendary Jagjit Singh-
Courtesy: nadhahassen.com

Yeh Daulat bhi le lo, Yeh shohrat bhi le lo
bhale cheen lo mujhse meri jawani
"magar mujhko lauta do- Bachpan ka Sawan
Ko kagaz ki kashti, woh baarish ka paani"

Loosely translated as- Take all my material possessions but return me my childhood and all the natural joys associated with it. The joy of being a kid again. The joy of being in the bosom of nature again. The joy of monsoon during childhood. When we made paper boats and float them in rain water.

The song transported me back to my childhood and the vivid memories that it had. The age of innocence, the age of being close to "natural self". The childhood when we were #NaturesFriend and spent so much of our time reveling in its divine beauty, serenity and tranquility.

Childhood is the "golden era" of a person's life. It was the perfect "age of innocence" when we were making new friends, discovering nature, learning new games, indulging in pure adventure. The time where summers did not mean harsh sun but that giant green mango tree that enticed us with it's fruits. Summers spelled the days when there were no schools but just bunch of friends and lot of adventure to do, full day. Vacations were as exotic as climbing trees, running across fields, breathing a repository of crisp fresh air, getting drenched in rain and eating a corn on cob while cycling with one hand in monsoon. 

Childhood when monsoons were not about mush and traffic jams but lots of rain shower, rain football and all. When we would make a round of friends and play "ring-a-ring-roses" in water or do simple rain dance, play football, get soiled in post rain aromatic water filled mud and feel great sense of achievement about it. Ah! That golden era of childhood. It's natural vigor and freshness. When can I go there next? When can I experience nature again. Not in the hustle bustle of this city though. But where?

Welcome to Kissanpur
And then somebody told me about Kissanpur. The land where sun smiles seeing a kid's play. A place where nature, nurture and fun is the way of life. Such land of Utopia is my Kissanpur.

So when Indiblogger and India's leading natural produce FMCG brand- Kissan asked to share a story about a child enjoying nature's company, I could not help but got myself transported back to my childhood [again] and reminisce all the lovely days I had when I was less of gadget driven but totally a #NaturesFriend

My Love with Mother Nature
I was born introvert. May be because I was always busy looking around and marveling at the beauty, the mystery of nature, exploring it, discovering simple joys through it like a child who plays in a mother's lap. Happy, curious, amused, content, well fed and secure.

My upbringing was done largely at my maternal grand father's house in Madhya Pradesh [Hindustan ka dil] Surguja district that was surrounded with vast lands, dense forests, mountains, rivers, crop fields, mines[even that is nature], valleys and much more. My grandpa was trader and a landlord, who migrated from Haryana to Lucknow and now to this beautiful place that his elder described and endorsed as "Ambikapur- blessed by the holy Goddess". He too fell in love with that place and started his business there, brought the family down, settled, made a huge house and invested in huge greenlands lands in areas nearby.

We had a huge house with a sprawling garden, a middle porch studded with potted plants and Grape vine, and a huge back house fruit/flower/vegetation field AKA Baadi. [a La Kitchen garden albeit huge in size].

I so much loved going around and hated stillness. As a kid, one would never find me inside the house but on the exteriors doing dare devils like walking the parapet walls, looking for hidden bunch of grapes in the vines, climbing the mango tree, entering the forbidden flower tree area of temple guard, climbing up the hibiscus tree and plucking flowers, chasing a butterfly, waking up in late night to spot fireflies, adopting a duo of rabbit only to see them grow manifold and much more. Needless to say, I would have left everyone in the household including our laborers in oil mill in haste breaths and worry. I did not enjoying doing that but i really enjoyed hanging out with nature.

Affairs to Remember
My childhood romance with nature is an affair to remember. It was full of activities ranging from fun to freak to vagabond to extremely weird to The legendary of all would be climbing from 4 story under construction building, into a pile of sand, standing up, stepping back and jumping again....all through out the noon. All at the harsh, warm sun of 3:00 pm in an afternoon. As if that was not enough, playing hopscotch on sand. Make as many laps as you can before the sea water washes it away. If it does, the next game is to collect as many sea conch shells and make sand castles- as punishment. For real fun was to swim on tides or hanging from house roof to factory shed to the big giant mango tree, peeping for a new fruit to grow.

Those were the days!



It was half past midnight and seems my radio station was close for the day. I got up to pull off the plug from that jarring noise of radio. I looked out at the still, dark skies. It invited me again. Wish I can go there. Wish I can ask Rain Gods to send some rains next morning. I so much ached to see a rainbow.

Today, I have that rain again but I really long for those two feet, using which I can stomp back on that puddle of water, splash it around, make paper boats and sail them on it. I miss my childhood. I miss being with nature. I miss that friendship I had with Mother Nature.

There is a child in all of us. Let us awake that child again and rejoice. Let us make friends with nature again. After all nature is our own, true nature. Let us nurture ourselves back in it's pristine lap.

Before I retired to my bed, I could not help but kept humming these lines from the song-

"Wo kadi dhoop mein apne ghar se nikalna
woh chidiya, wo bulbul, wo titli pakadna
woh jhoolo pe chadna, chad ke jhoolna
woh jhullon se girna, gir ke sambahalna
kabhi ret ke oonche teelo pe jaana
gharonde banana, bana ke mitana
woh kaagaz ki kashti, woh baarish ka paani!

Ah! That rain shower and the paper boat. I took out my phone and made a note to go for holidays soon. Soon to a place with great natural heritage. I may not be able to hike a mountain but I have enough in me to stretch my arms and embrace their beauty. I must go for a nature's visit again. Before that, I would take all the lovely kids in my vicinity to play in rain and make colorful paper boats.

Where are you taking your kid today?
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To relive some of fun, to relish that 100% real taste of nature again, do visit Kissan's website- www.kissan.in



The autor is half Human, half machine. Go Figure or just revel in what I write

8 comments:

  1. Loved ur post Ekta.. All the best.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Bhawya..Thank you soo much!

      Delete
  2. Bollywood, nature, and bachpan converging in one post... loved it.

    Arvind Passey
    http://passey.info/2014/04/why-do-rivers-run/

    www.passey.info

    ReplyDelete
  3. Very nicely integrated, Ekta!
    All the best! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Poonam... Waiting for results :)

      Delete
  4. Sweet memories, ring around the rosey...wow hadn't thought about that in ages. The sunflower picture is priceless! Childhood, a time we spend wanting to grow up and adult hood we wish we could go back. Sigh, here through a-z

    Traveling Suitcase A-Z

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah those were the best days of our life. I miss them a lot. I see children today n wish if I can be a child again..

      Delete

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