"Maa" Calls out my daughter for the umpteenth time .. "I'm exercising", I yell from another part of our home. " How much more time? "She calls back and I softly say "40 minutes more".. If you thought I'm in a gym room with my treadmill and weights and whatever obnoxious stuff they have there, you are mistaken.. I am actually in my "muttam" As they call it here in Kerala and I am enjoying the best part of my day, my hourly therapy for myself amidst the beautiful, bountiful nature.
I spot a pond heron on top of our well, taking few sips of water from the saucer laid out by my daughter for the birds.. A few koels and mynahs are singing simultaneously as if in a stiff competition. They are both equally sweet- sounding to me. Half a dozen babblers suddenly descend and go about pecking in the ground, constantly babbling.. A parrot calls from atop the huge mahogany tree.. A tut-tutting watercock here, a couple of tap-tapping flame-backs up there, cawking cattle egrets atop coconut trees.. Sunbirds, kingfisher, eagles, kites and crows...i see them all..Aah.. I want to scream.. Nature's songs- aren't they wonderful to the one who stops to hear??
I move on to admire the day's blooms in my forest-like garden.. Orchids here, a saffron/red/yellow/pink hibiscus there, some thirty champaks on the champa tree, sweet smelling jasmines on the creeper, a few hundred parijathas strewn on the ground like a carpet... Ohh! I get dizzy marvelling at the sights of nature. Isn't Nature awesome for the one who stops to see??
Having huge trees, especially of the jack and mango varieties gives me a lot of feathered company, but also leaves behind heaps of dried, rotted leaves ...A stickler for neatness that I am, I have to immediately clear them away.. So here I am, armed with an 'eerkali' broom, a scooping tray and a big plastic basket to collect the stuff. Initially when I started doing this,hardly had I cleaned a fourth of my yard when my knees buckled, my back groaned and I had to stop and literally hunch back into my home.. But now, I have mastered the art. I can do my entire yard in one go, feeling my stomach constrict so much as I bend that I feel I am 'shilpa shetty' in the making. When I am done doing the whole yard, I dump the leaves into the pit and light a fire.. The sound of the fire crackling and smell of the dried leaves burning and turning to ash gives me a feeling of "deja vu". I am now sweating like crazy, but I have a smile on my lips and my hear is content. And I have no aches or pains. On many days, I have wanted to linger on enjoying this moment forever..until..like today, I come back to reality hearing my daughter again... "Maa I'm hungry, what's for breakfast? .. She asks, and I hurry into my kitchen already putting together a break fast idea in my mind.
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