Nature, you reveal...

This weekend, I had gone to Chennai, just to attend a friend`s wedding reception. The journey from Hyderabad to Chennai, by Charminar Express is usually a long winding ride and I therefore had quite some time to read an Agatha Christie Book as well as catch up on the brilliant scenery outside.

The morning, after which I had boarded the train, the earlier night, I got up all drowsy and irritated on having been woken up by the loud fat woman on the lower berth.

I went to the toilet, washed my face and then quickly remembered that I did not have a towel with me. In such situations, I normally go and stand near the door and allow the cold wind to dry my face, and believe me, it is often really refreshing.

The outdoors also were really captivating, with the early morning dew and the eager greenery looking towards the sky with great anticipation to beget more sunshine. The mountainous backdrop to all this greenery and the early morning sun, as drowsy as myself slowly peeping at the country side.

I stood there, captivated, expecting the sun to rise and lend more colour to the already picturesque sight. But Nature is quick to deceive humanity. Dark Clouds started to form and they slowly covered the horizon, where the sun had earlier been trying to rise. As the train curved over an embankment, it slowly started to drizzle. A most dramatic transformation, I would say.

Slowly but steadily, the picture began to change and the slight drizzle was turning into a violent downpour. I was awestruck at the sudden change. It was as if God was reading my mind and as if he decided to give me a quick lesson about life. It was truly as if he was telling me that nothing is permanent and that calmness and turbulence, that light and darkness, Day and night are all aspects of life and that it is in their transformation and turn of events that the wholesomeness of Life itself is defined.

One of my favourite poets is William Wordsworth and the main reason is that I tend to draw inspiration from nature to trigger my thought process, which is so much like how he uses nature to craft those most beautiful poems.

As I turned back and closed the door on the request of my co-passengers, I thought to myself about how, if Wordsworth had travelled to India, if he had travelled on a train, if he had seen the immense richness of nature; how much richer English poetry would have been.

Not that the poets of India, themselves have done a lesser job, but Wordsworth as his name suggests had quite a talent with words, very simple words to express the most complex and unexplored outbursts of emotions.

I myself have often been inspired by the natural beauty explored through the tiny windows in the chugging trains.

Nature, thy best knows to teach, to refresh and nourish my body and mind.

Nature, you reveal...