Beach, after sunset

First time I went to the beach after sunset. Though I couldn't see the turquoise blue color of the sea but enjoyed the contrast: dark blue sea and milky white waves. When I was lying alone on the grainy white sand with my eyes closed, evening breeze was my blanket and sound of splashing waves was soft music. Never felt so close to nature. I was in trance and completely relaxed.

I became a secured and carefree child who was taking a nap and her mother about to wake her up. But when I opened my eyes, I saw my son was trying to wake me up as he was exhausted after playing with water and sand. Ohh... the reality hit me, I was transported back to the present: One hour cleaning the sand, drill from every corner of my home :-) 

Lizards for dinner?

When I said “Yes” to settling down in Japan with my future husband (who was staying Japan then), I was thrown with lots of comments like – “You don’t know Japanese”, “You will be served lizards for dinner", “The most expensive country in the world”.

My adventurous side ignored those comments and I started my journey with mixed feelings. Yes, I admit initially it was difficult but gradually Japanese culture started sinking in and became a part of my personality. Now, after eight years I feel fortunate to have lived in this beautiful country where nature is at its best. I have learnt a new language, am more hardworking and organized and have a healthy life style. Japanese believe kindness and gratitude as their religion. Today, I thank them for teaching me both and I feel fortunate to have stayed and known this country so closely.  

Old memories

I always wanted to visit Qutub Minar in the morning hours to click pictures.  So, this summers when my seven-year-old son and I were visiting my mother’s home in Gurgaon, India I managed to go there with my brother.  I loved the way they wrote the opening hours -sunrise to sunset.  We reached there before sunrise and as expected it was closed, so we had to wait outside for the concerned person to arrive. It was hot and humid and there were flies disturbing my son. There were few energetic morning walkers who gave us strange looks and few stray dogs that were able to go in and out of Qutub Minar complex. Finally when my son almost gave up his fight with the flies and my brother was about to loose his patience, the ticket master arrived and we were able to go in.

Few steps inside the complex took me back to my childhood days when I visited this historic place with my parents. In those times going inside the tower was allowed (not any more) and to my surprise I could recollect those old moments. Nothing has changed and it smelled the same after twenty long years.  I hear my son screech in excitement as we go near the 73 m tall red sandstone minar built in 1193 with Arabic inscription. The lush green complex is surrounded by several other ancient and medieval structures and ruins is collectively known as the Qutub complex. It looks heavenly in the morning sunlight and is a perfect click!

It started getting hot but we still had to cover the other half of the complex. We saw iron pillar that weighs more than 6000 kg with inscription in Sanskrit. It was interesting to see inscriptions in two different languages - Arabic and Sanskrit. Next we saw an unfinished structure called Alai Minar. It was intended to be two times higher than Qutub Minar. The complex had two mosques but we were too tired to visit them. Finally we decided to head back home. I left the complex with some fresh ever lasting memories and this time in a more modern way- in my DSLR camera.