The Mountain Playlist

Yes, it was time that I return to my love for mountains and this time it is a compilation of songs that I never leave behind when I travel to those magical snowy peaks. *_*

• Maahi Ve from Highway – For obvious reasons and also Rahman’s magic.

• Preet from Khubsurat – The echo in the music and the voice make it perfect for the mountains. Another reason could be that I heard it for the first time while travelling in a bus in McLeodganj.

• Ye Haseen Vadiyaan from Roja – Like every other song from Roja, this one was way ahead of its time and the lyrics are so so beautiful.

• Naam Ada Likhna from Yahaan – Shot in Kashmir (sorry for the video quality), again the echoing factor makes it a song for the mountains.

• Khul Kabhi from Haider – Kashmir at its best and Vishal Bhardwaj too.

• Shikayatein from Lootera – When the part in the mountains begins, my love for the movie makes it all the more special.

• Deewana Hua Badal – I heard it for the first time on some music/antakshri show sung by someone else, and what imagery man! A cloud going crazy. This has to be on every nature lover’s list!

• Sham from Aisha – A very trip-py one.

• Tu Bin Bataye from Rang De Basanti – Rahman and that voice!

• Big Rock Candy Mountain from O Brother, Where Art Thou? – Please please I beg of you to watch this video, it’s like one of the cute-est things ever.

On Travelling Solo

To me, travelling is one of the best stress busters and also on of my greatest hobbies. I feel like this is the time when I can indulge in activities like these because later it will be too late. I realised that this should be something that I should follow forever because no time is a bad time to travel. The biggest drawback for any girl in India is the fact that it is really hard to travel alone. It is also not a very judicious idea because it will definitely take a toll on your pocket. I have always wanted to go out on solo walks during rainy nights when I was at home. There was no way I would be allowed outside after 11 in the night. When I shifted to Mumbai, I was amazed by the freedom that girls could enjoy. I often walked back home at 2, sometimes even 4 from college to home.

There was an article I read on Thought Catalog about how you could be with someone and yet be alone. That is the kind of travelling that I dream of. To have someone there for when you need them, to make memories and to yet be alone, to get lost in the mountains, in the sound of nature, in the fresh air and the delicious food. On one of my trips I found a friend like that. On our way back from a trek, our group got left behind and we decided to wait for them sitting on a cliff, overlooking the mountains – The Dhauladhar Range. That moment was sort of like the moment of enlightenment for me. I don’t think I can ever forget the exact details of that moment ever in my life. We weren’t talking. It was like the other person didn’t even exist even though they did. It was also the moment I fell in love, with several things at once, mostly in love with life!

I wrote something after coming back:

And it has come to an end, the amazing 10 days in Delhi. McLeodganj, Bhagsunag and Trikund. A time like none other. Thanks to the company.

For the first time in my life I found serenity in solitude even when I wasn’t alone and peace in silence with someone who knew what I wanted to say without saying anything. Those were the days I would want to live over and over again despite the few bitter moments. The good ones definitely overpower them. These memories will push me forward in life. Towards better things and better judgements. It’s the little things in life that keep you going. Those expressions of love and care, the reiterated concerns for your well being.

The moment I was talking about:

Those three stray wisps of clouds among the hills. Mixing and melting and moulding into one single entity. The serenity of it all, the stolen moments of peace. The mutual understanding. What else could one wish for. The sound of water rushing downhill, a cigarette in your hand and the dizziness in your brain, being supported by people you love the most. Staring into the sunset with your head upon their shoulder, the playful atmosphere, the light-headedness, the million shades of the sky during dusk. Another wisp of the clouds lodged in the snow capped mountains. A cup of tea, a pen and a notebook, with the steps towards heaven right in front of me. There’s nothing else I could ever wish for.

home.

This is just a follow-up to my last post. Found this by coincidence. It just goes so well with what I wrote. ❤

sarahgoodreau

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Bucket List Part 2

Living in the Mountains.

My love for mountains is just never ending. There is nothing in the world I would love more than living my life there. This is perhaps on the topmost preferences on my bucket list.

I wish I could just leave behind this crazy world and live there amidst nature at its best. I wonder how, just how did all these places came into existence? Why do they inspire us? Why are all of them so different? Beaches and mountains and plains. (P.S. my instagram bio reads “Mountains Beaches and Everything in between) I think why a particular person likes a particular kind of place depends a lot on their personality. For instance, I think I am more intrigued by places which are silent, calm and slow. The weather also makes a lot of difference to me. I’d rather have an everlasting winter than an everlasting summer. The mountains are thus perfect for me.

Clicked at Triund Trek, McLeodganj/Dharamshala.

Thoughts on Kahlil Gibran

Let me bathe my soul in colours; let me swallow the sunset and drink the rainbow.

Such profound lines. Kahlil Gibran is one of those writers who leaves you dumbfounded for words. I have read a few of his works – ‘The Prophet’ and ‘The Secrets of the Heart’. Needless to say, he expresses the beauty of the world in just a few words.

Here are some more of his lines that will make you fall in love with his writing:

• A true hermit goes to the wilderness to find -not to lose himself.
• I often picture myself living on a mountain top, in the most stormy country in the world. Is there such a place? If there is I shall go to it someday and turn my heart into pictures and poems.
• What is poetry? An extension of vision – and music is an extension of hearing.
• Knowledge is life with wings.
• You listen so much more than I can say. You hear consciousness. You go with me where the words I say can’t carry you.

It is amazing how much I can relate to him even now in this age even when he wrote all this long ago. My love for travelling and trekking comes out through the first line. It was then when I found myself, found love and so many other things.

It has always been a dream to settle down in the mountains, sometime in my life, disconnected from the rest of the world. Just me, my books and my writing. The second line says all that for me.

The next line brings out my love for poetry and music. Even though I am not a poet in the true sense of the word, I like to express myself through as little as can be said, and that is what poetry is for me, who decides the exact definition of it anyway. Music takes me to another world all together. Our five sense are forever in action, only at rest when we sleep. But still there are moments of high when a particular kind of sound, sight, smell, touch and taste transport you to another world altogether.

The fourth line is extremely inspiring, owing to my never ending curiosity for knowledge, to know more and to learn more. Everything I am today, I owe to my education. The simple fact that I am writing this blog right now is also because of knowledge. Knowledge of a writer who I came across and learnt to love.

The last line is perhaps my favourite. Its about how that one person knows your being and soul and mind so well that they are always aware of what your consciousness is thinking or saying. A relation like that is difficult to achieve and lucky are those who reach that level. The last line leaves me confused. It has several meanings I could think of. I will leave it to you to decipher it your own way. 🙂

~Shreya

High Notes

And the river said stop but the mountains said no. Or was it the other way round. Whatever it was, a valley was born. The clouds sinked in and formed a crown. The snow fell down to be their blanket. The fishes dived in to make their homes. The trees grew longer and greener and left a path. The human could follow and reach the place, the mortals call heaven.

Things I love

Inspired by Marianna Paige

I love the sound of rain in the morning
I love reading someone else’s notes in a book
I love the smell of fresh coffee brewing
I love how some songs remind you of places far away
I love seeing a familiar place in a movie
I love going through the pages of my journal and laughing at my stupidity
I love how some people’s stories make you want to re-live it
I love bursting bubble-wrap, who doesn’t?
I love gazing out the window of a moving bus
I love the view from the mountains, it makes you feel so big and the world so small
I love reading stories that are accompanied by artwork
I love writing lines in my journal that I can relate to
I love reading lines that remind me of my own life
And as you can see, I love making lists 😛

Words Part 2

Chai at Cha Bar.
Credits: https://rakrup.wordpress.com

In accordance with requests from a someone special:

When the roads seem to be turning just round the next bend, and you want to know what lies ahead. Just imagine the possibilities, let your imagination run wild. There could be a waterfall with sparkling droplets of water forming a rainbow passing through its midst, there could be a tea-seller with the most amazing elaichi tea served in small clay cups that smell like heaven, there could be someone you had wanted to meet since a long time but the obstacles of the world had stopped you from doing the same, maybe there is a friend who is not yet a friend, maybe you will strike a conversation with him over tea and be together for years to come, maybe when you step beyond the turn, there is a whole different world waiting for you, mountains and valleys and lush green trees shining in all their glory, maybe it will rain, maybe it won’t, maybe the road is just like another road, but maybe, just maybe, you could dream on and imagine and maybe then, it could be the best path you had taken.

Inspired by My Favourite Things, The Sound of Music.