Verdant Ramblings
Green is the colour! No other colour can soothe my frayed nerves as much as Green is capable of. Even while having a busy day at office, just walking to the pantry balcony and having a cup of tea, watching the greenery outside helps in ironing out the creases of tiredness from my weary mind. And thankfully the campus in which my office sits is quite a verdant one. There is no dearth of trees, big or small; in-between the many buildings that occupy the vast business space, and short walks from one building to the other is never a dry or tiresome affair.
Tall old fashioned silver & glass lamp-posts add charm to the avenues and the vintage-looking park benches that line both sides of the walk-ways, makes the scene prettier. They call them the 'Think Points'. The thought of sitting on one of those curvy wooden benches relishing the luxuriant green spreading shade of a tree…watching the clouds change shape… waiting for absolutely nothing…. is so tempting. The only problem that I'm facing now is that I no longer have the time or the leisure to sit comfortably on one of those benches and enjoy the subtle campus noises, or the rustle of the leaves, while the light breeze scatters my hair all over my face. For now, I'm quite happy that it’s all there …the trees… the walks… the benches…and there is a certain peace of mind when I think on those lines.
I'm certain that I would not be the first person experiencing this predicament. I speak for all the souls scrambling hurriedly past those inviting empty vintage benches, neither stopping by to glance at the beautiful handiwork of man nor to take a minute’s repose under the leafy shade… For all the souls, who long to sit for hours under that shade… lamenting about not having the time at their disposal to do so during the day, and then blog about it, breaking into fits of regret, at night.
We might have the inclination to think of this as the curse of a modern way of life. But then, what is ‘modern’? ‘Modern’ becomes a concept that has been defined and re-defined infinitely; a concept trapped in the never-ending cycles of birth, life, death and revival, endlessly spanning years, decades, centuries and millenniums. This dilemma of ‘modern’ man must have undoubtedly been the same internal dilemma that Robert Frost had faced in the beginning of the 20th Century, leading him to pen down the immortal words,
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep…”
Or the same sentiment that the ‘tramp poet’ William Henry Davies belonging to the same era had felt, when he reflected on the human condition thus,
“A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare…”
I still remember W.H. Davies being read out to the class by our English teacher in primary school. I also clearly recollect myself wondering then, as to what must have caused the poet to run so drastically out of time, that he could not even spare a moment to just ‘stand & stare’! What an exaggeration! Well… I must admit that most of the verses by-hearted and parroted during those naive unformed phases of life have now assumed the highest levels of meaning. As years advance, with every reading, they continue to overwhelm us with the way they mirror actuality in all their verity & simplicity.
We seem to be a generation running 'drastically' out of time. We might be called the ‘Yuppie’ generation or 'Generation-Y' by New Gen human taxonomists! Now, that might mean a 100 different things to 100 different people. The classification often borders around descriptions that are dotted and crossed with words like – unhappy, delusional, ambitious, self-absorbed, cynical, skeptic and what not! Taxonomies and taglines apart, we are a generation whose lives span not just centuries, but millenniums. Our lives are spread across historic timelines that seams the borders of the past and the present. We are special that way. As special as ‘special’ can ever stretch it's wings and fly off from the tallest cliffs of the absurdity of existence.
We seem to be a generation running 'drastically' out of time. We might be called the ‘Yuppie’ generation or 'Generation-Y' by New Gen human taxonomists! Now, that might mean a 100 different things to 100 different people. The classification often borders around descriptions that are dotted and crossed with words like – unhappy, delusional, ambitious, self-absorbed, cynical, skeptic and what not! Taxonomies and taglines apart, we are a generation whose lives span not just centuries, but millenniums. Our lives are spread across historic timelines that seams the borders of the past and the present. We are special that way. As special as ‘special’ can ever stretch it's wings and fly off from the tallest cliffs of the absurdity of existence. 
However grandiose the idea might seem, we are entitled to only as many days on this planet, as our forefathers were, or probably less, taking into account the direct or indirect consumption of all the obnoxious fumes and fluids of the polluted times we live in. And it becomes our call to make our short stay on this celestial sphere, a meaningful one. Am I getting too much carried away in some cosmic transport bus to the other world now? Well…let me just take a deep breath …close my eyes and think of absolutely nothing for a few minutes…and before I fall asleep in the process, here’s a fond wish to all…Yuppie or not, let there be more Time for everyone to do all the things they deeply love and more Trees all around us to make our short sojourn on Earth a healthy and happy one… and then...All shall be well with the world.
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