A Trip- As I Want It To Be

Haze in the distance,

Yet a lot more to see,

This would be a moment I had wished to experience once,

Just Nature, my friends and me.

A gloomy morning it all occurred on,

With Jahid banging on the door,

My sleep was away and gone,

And I rose with my back all sore.

Then there came Sneha,

With the whole group,

All ready and set to pull me away,

To break me from the daily office loop.

With the screech of rubber on the sidewalk,

The Fortuner left its stationary stand,

Flying into the rain and the wind,

Accompanied by the smell of Ambipur and the wet sand.

Towards Bhandardhara we raced,

The beautiful creation of nature,

With nothing to stop us,

Except an unanticipated puncture.

There dies the rhythm of the composition,

As I wait, watch and listen,

At the grey clouds enveloping the sky,

And what leaves my mouth is the startled cry of “Oh my”.

Back on the move,

We gorge on vada-pavs, and while drinking steaming cups of tea,

I hold Sneha close, as though it’s just her and me.

The concrete falls apart,

Now replaced by mud,

You are near your destination,

Shout the flowers and their small buds.

The vehicle comes to a halt,

The journey half done,

We traipse out of the car, and towards the steady trickling

of water, We all run.

Pushing and shoving, loving and cajoling,

We play in the dropping dripping water,

Pushed by its force, it lathers our backs,

With hard painful smacks.

There it is all around me,

Friends, otherwise and of nature,

Which is all I wished to see,

Far from the work,

This is the journey,

I had wanted it to be.

The clouds, the rain,

The water beating on my back, and the welcome pain,

The grass, the trees,

Now dancing, busy like buzzing bees.

Friendship and love,

It overflowed in the grove,

Never to be lost, it was always there to be.

A remarkable trip it was, never to be forgotten,

Always in memory, it would be something which would never be lost.

This is what my dream trip would be,

Something I have to wait for, till my license comes to me,

There are the friends, waiting expectantly for me,

And the gorgeous gift of nature, scenic, beautiful and picturesque.

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