Moments close to my heart

By Arastah Jannat Islam

Sometimes we come across some moments which get etched in our mind in such a way that they lead to an overwhelming overflow of joy and a fulfilling feeling.

 However, in spite of that feeling of fulfilment, somewhere in us we also tend to have a feeling of freezing that moment exactly the way it was and not just in a mere photograph but in a way we can relive that moment when we wish to.

Well, I'm sure we all have this "I wish I could" segment running time and again in our respective minds. In some minds if it's once in a while phenomenon, in minds of day dreamers like me and some of my severely, obsessively day dreaming friends, it is a part of our whole mindset and thought process- basically, it is the basis of our whole psychological formation and phenomenon. When we day dream while working, eating, walking, travelling and also while in conversation with someone, a major part of the illusions arise from this one thought- "I wish I could!"

Sharing some of the moments I wish I could freeze....

The scintillating sea and the sand....

This overwhelmed feeling gets me all the time when I watch the sea and the tides. Whenever I am by the sea I just can't take my eyes off the dancing waves, dancing to the tunes of the wind. The frothy ends of the tides as they rise and then suddenly gushes at your feet making you little wobbly and retreat to the sea is an exhilarating feeling. And also added to that I love the texture of the trail of sand that sets behind after the water recedes. I wish I could capture them all along with the wind blowing in my hair.

The ethereal sky....

Not only the sea that overwhelms my senses, I find absolute solace in watching the sky as well. Be it watching the night sky filled with stars or clouds or having an awesome view from the window seat of your flight, the sky is indeed soothing. Whenever I am at my ancestral home in our village I love to watch the pollution free sky either lying on a cot in the courtyard or on a mat in the palanquinned balcony. The feeling is beyond words especially when it's a moonlit sky and stars shining around. On cloudy nights too, the hide and seek of the moon and the clouds is worth a watch.

How about the view from the window seat while on a flight? Isn't it a treat to eyes....As far as eyes go its only cottony heaps of clouds. It seems another landscape with mountains made of clouds and lakes of cloud with the sun beams creating some light effect ( I didn't yet have the opportunity to admire the night sky from an aeroplane). The veil like a filmsy layer of clouds, the glossy bunch of clouds and of course the turbulent causing clouds that simply blocks any kind of view. However, in any case watching the sky and the clouds and the stars and the moon gives me immense pleasure. I wish I could hold on the sights forever.

The mesmerising moon....

On a date with the moon, I almost sprained my neck. It was some years ago when I was returning from another trip to a village somewhere. As our car started off, the last of day light turned to the sweet dimmed evening light and gradually darkness spread all over. The whole stretch of the narrow road was guarded by tall trees of various kind. And then suddenly I see the moon, fully bloomed, as if staring and smiling at me. It felt as if I just need to stretch my arms and my fingers would touch the moon. I have never experienced the moon in such close proximity. As our car kept moving and the moon accompanying us I could not at all move my eyes away from it. I kept on watching the moon as it sometimes hid behind those tall trees and sneaked a look through the gaps of the leaves and again came back to full sight. All the way this affair went on. But as soon as we inched towards the jungle of the concrete with smoke for clouds I gradually lost sight of that bright moon that I have been watching so far. I wish I could keep the glow of the moon intact.

The greeny-grassy meadow....

On another trip to some hill station, I came across this huge meadows on both sides of the serpentine road. The meadow on one side stretched to the base of hillocks and on the other side, it was as if the green field met the horizon. With few bushy shrubs and trees scattered all over the meadows on both sides, the sight was as much delectable as some exotic dish served on a beautiful plate. And once again there I felt that if only I could hold on to this view accompanied by the smell of grass and the rain-kissed earth. I wish I could.

The gracefully musical waterfalls....

And when we are talking about hill station the waterfalls cannot be missed and the cherry on the cake is when the place was recently drizzled by a spell of rain. Waterfall of various sizes could be enjoyed in such a time. Water cascading over some rocky surface and touching the ground forming some water trails and creating a beautiful music. I wish I could keep this musical waterfalls always with me.

The myriad of gilded winged beings....

The most recent experience that I had was during my visit to one of the metro cities when an unexpectedly delightful sight met my eyes. That day I took a cab just to look around the city, expecting the usual buildings synonymous to grandeur. And then when my car started climbing one of the flyovers, I saw something that literally took my breath away and as if for few seconds I forgot to breathe. To start with I could see a row of huge trees (of which I don't know the names) with a mixture of baby pink and yellow flowers. The tiny flowers looked lovely. As we proceeded on the bridge I felt that yellow flowers are moving and on closure, the look was 'the moment' for me. Those yellow things were not flowers but thousands of tiny butterflies hovering over those huge trees. That was a sight indeed. I have never experienced something like this ever. Thankfully I have already asked my driver to take the car slowly. I wanted to soak in that sight for as long as I could. The kaleidoscopic constellation of the butterflies dancing and playing over those green trees and the pink flower was something I can never forget. My happiness was on a crescendo at the sight, however, the sinking feeling of losing the moments to its fleeting nature started building up as well. As evident, I gradually lost sight of the butterflies and was back from the beautiful dream to the concrete reality. It was just like a lush green oasis on a dry and dusty desert. But I was thankful at the same time for witnessing such a precious sight, because that flyover being a busy traffic route I'm sure not many would notice that marvel of a view while on the move to fulfil their daily responsibilities. If only I could stretch the time or store a part of such a visual treat of uncountable fluttering butterflies. I wish I could!

I'm sure many of us have experienced certain things that turned to pleasant treats to our sense. And we wished to either go back into time to those moments or bring them to us. We wish we could. However, I  feel the whole charm and beauty of those moments must be in the fact that they could be experienced only once and could be lived and felt many more times through that experience that we had and carried it along in our mind. They are not something to be kept in our possession. We just need to close our eyes and relive them. But then we are human beings and we tend to own everything and anything we like not realising that a beautiful moment can be felt with all our senses open to it. That is why no matter how much high-resolution pictures we click, we end up pleasing only one sense of ours, that is the visuals. The rest we can only feel through our imagination.

Cheers to all those moments that in a way tied us down to them. May we come across more such instances where we are transcended to a different level of happiness.