It was dark and I was sitting on the balcony. I could feel the chill eating through my bones. I was in the majestic hill station of Coorg, popularly known as the Scotland of India. We were eight of us, and six were already deep into their sleep. The two of us, were nocturnal creatures. We knew that nature was beautiful by day, but wonderful by night. The moon, though hiding behind the clouds, had lit the night sky with eye blinding white.
It’s amazing how many different sounds you can hear at night, the chirping of crickets, the intervals at which the wind blows causing the leaves to dance, as if to usher in the moonlight, the gentle flow of water from a stream nearby. The pathway which could be seen from our balcony was illuminated by bright yellow light. From where we were sitting, the path looked never ending. Every now and then, we would see people walk that path, like lost souls on a never ending path. Just sitting there, not doing anything, not thinking anything, looking into the darkness, was enough to move me to my soul. I wondered if this is what it would feel like in heaven. There was a thin blanket of fog surrounding us, and my every thought was lost in it.
God blessed this place with all of beauty and splendor. Time flew as we sat there. We were not aware of how long we had been sitting there. A gentle breeze, the song of the earth, brought joy to the flora around us. Even in the darkness, we could see the brightly colored flowers. There were thousands of them, in every possible color a person could think of. Just like these flowers, even in the coldest of weather, were at their best, I was determined to be positive, at any troubled point in my life. A small beep on my cell phone reminded me of the time, and I decided to retire for the night.
There is something inexplicable about hill stations. It stirs up emotions in you, which you thought never existed. You would find peace. You would feel lost in its endless beauty, and you just cannot get enough of it. I feel that a journey is incomplete if you don’t take anything from it. It can be anything from something as simple as memories, or something as complex as a very important realization. For four semesters my friends and I have visited different places, and learnt different things, but never have we visited a place like Coorg, a place with eternal beauty and wisdom. Never have I felt so connected with nature as I have here. It was as though nature, through its different ways, was conveying a message to me. I returned a much wiser person, knowing that nature is, at all times, watching over me.
