During my stint at Nimbus Communications Ltd., we had 6 months of season and 6 months of off season. Just before the onset of our season for 2010; my office colleagues & I decided to take a break from work and head to Mudis-Allepey-Cochin for 4D/4N trip to recharge ourselves.
I was overtly enthusiastic about the trip as finally I was taking a break from work and all the chaotic life around me. I desperately wanted to be myself. We were told there was no network connectivity till we reach Cochin which we would reach only on the last day. This to me meant absolute bliss. I had yearned for this and finally I was seeing this wish of mine fulfilled.
We reached Mudis on the first night. The journey was in the wilderness in the dark night with animals moving around. We were kicked about initially but then slowly we started having short naps. We reached the guest house late midnight; our short power naps had recharged us and we freshened up to chat throughout the night with energizers at room temperature for company. We slept at the onset of dawn for an hour or two and set out to sight seeing. Mudis is small town miles away from Coimbatore. It is filled with tea plantations and endowed with nature's blessings. A rarity in Bombay!! We went to all the places worth sight seeing and came back to our guest house to change. We were heading to a water body (more like a river). I have had stressful and crisis filled months in the last decade. We didn't even know the name of the place as I said earlier it was in wilderness; we were just aware about it's location. Little did I know what was in store for me there!!
Though I am a person who madly loves waters and sunsets; I had never immersed myself completely in water ever. It was the first time for me. My colleagues forced me into it. The place was awesome. I was capturing all the scenic imprints in my mind to re-visit them later. I did not know swimming but it did not matter. To me the place was calling!! My heart drew me towards it. Gradually, one by one, we started stepping into the water. It was thrilling with all of us splashing the clear water on each other and losing balance on the rocks and getting fully drenched in water. Once this happened there was no looking back. Holding hands we waded into deep waters. There when we immersed fully into the water and opened our eyes within, we saw that the water was a beautiful sea green. We did this quite a lot of times just to lose out ourselves to Mother Nature. Leaving the rest to themselves, I set on my own. I came across few rocks on which you could lie flat but angled and let the water hit your head from a higher slant level and then pass all over through your body. The force of the water gushing through my head, closing in on my ears blocking it, moved me into a trance filled world transcending between time and space with my body almost floating. Here nothing mattered except the feeling that I was one with myself and life seemed serene and blissful. Acintya Bheda, Abheda Tatva!! This is one experience which cannot be explained in words. It was like sensing a "peace unknown". All of my worries vanished, my life reeled before me, my problems seemed non-existent and I felt re-energized wholly. I lay like this for quite sometime little knowing how fast the clock was ticking! I drifted into a short nap that was a tension-free deep one depraved of all worldly concerns. We were in the waters for 4+ hours and we all felt alike. Wish we could stay longer but alas! we couldn't as we had to move on. The time spent in the waters and the wonderful experience that we had could not be reprised anywhere on Mother Earth!!
The next day was spent in a house boat in the back waters of Allepey. The backwaters were lovely but I was in trance from the previous day's experience. I kept living in those moments; I still do. I will never be able to overcome the wonderful time in Mudis. From Allepey, we went to Cochin which was like any other city in India. Returning back to the concrete jungle of Bombay from there made me see the sharp contrast of life in its full demeanour. Life here indeed is in fetters and like how Darwin said it, it is only the "Survival of the fittest" out here unlike in the waters at Mudis where life felt like life..!!
Zendagi Migzara...
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