9th May, 2015

We wake up early, get ready quickly, and the three dogs, Seeker, Terry, and Tessie, 'gallop' to mamma and lick her feet. We have a light breakfast of amazing, (not-tasteless) pancakes with honey or different types of jam and set out for paragliding yet again. We stop to pick up three ladies, who turn out to be Bengalis and Mamma befriends them quickly. Usually sports and physical exercise look easy, but are difficult. It was exactly the opposite with paragliding. It looked difficult and complicated but was really a piece of cake. I take the leap after Mamma, Bonu, and the three ladies. The pilot incharge of me is really nice. He circles back to the take-off point and I yell, "Baba!'' when I see him searching for my parachute. It is such an amazing experience, to be able to fly. I love it from the moment I feel weightless and the wind makes us soaring high. The pilot tells me to record the journey. Since I was already doing that, he tells me to take the canopy above and then my face. I do that twice, once too quickly, but I am too enthralled to do anything any further. I just leave the camera on my knee and let it record whatever I pass over. The view is amazing!

"I'm on the top of the world,
Looking down on creation..."

When he begins to swing from side to side, he asks me whether I am afraid. I reply saying I am not scared and that I like it. Later, however, I realise that I had been understating my feelings. I had loved the sensation of weightlessness and the thrill of flying like a bird. Indeed, I had truly felt as though I had been born to paraglide!

I wonder whether Leonardo Da Vinci or the Wright brothers ever imagined this feeling as they dreamed of man ruling the skies. I do not think there is any word strong enough to sum up what I felt, how elated I felt. One must have to experience it to be able to know the feeling. When I landed, mamma said that I had been grinning like a Cheshire cat. Apparently, the two people who took off after me, reached before me, I had been soaring so long. I enjoyed every moment of it and wish it had lasted longer. Still, all good things must end and we were soon back in the Retreat, having a brunch of aloo parathas and omlettes and fruits. We said our goodbyes and left for the railway station with a jar full of aunty's mulberry jam, and a heart full of a sense of fulfilment.

Sitting in the train, heading back to Delhi, I fix up a place where I plan to meet up with my friends tomorrow. Nature did help cure my Writer's block -just as mamma said it would. After all, "Mother knows best!" I did manage to write a part of the poem I was working on.

As we head back to home and luxury, I do not know how I feel. Here we are, folks of the city, sitting in the lap of creature comforts, yet we are craving for more. We are never content with what we have. Having achieved our goal, we always want the next best thing. Even though we possess high tech locks, and CCTV cameras, we are still insecure. No one trusts each other. Looking at the people of the Himalayas, they have everything to fear, they have to toil so hard. Their children might be carried off as leopard lunch. They might not find jobs in such remote regions. They might fall and injure themselves on their way to or from work and nobody will know. Yet they are so happy and free spirited. They sing their hearts away, and are not afraid of anyone judging them. They are content with whatever little they have. They are not afraid of anyone harming them and do not need any security but that of their innate self. This trip has really opened my eyes to yet another kind of people and life. A people, who care for their forests, and cannot exploit them without feeling a pang of guilt, a people who have complete faith in humanity. I believe this is how mankind is essentially meant to be. I think we lost our way in this forest of ever-changing, ever-growing list of aspirations and wants. After all, "If more of us valued food, home, and good company to hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world."