Heaven on earth

I found paradise at a quaint pond on the crack of dawn last Friday. I must jot down the exact moment before memory fades, as I wish to return to that exact moment time and again, even if it is only through the words I write.

I owe this to my friend Rafi, who casually mentioned the picturesque setting of ponds covered by lotuses, and reminded that it is worth a visit as they were now in full bloom.

I waited for the week to end ever since, and on a Friday, even before the white thread of the morning separated the dark, my comrades and I headed out for an unknown destination to see lotuses and lilies in their full bloom.

The sky that day was a mild tone of grey. The still water covered in a green blanket of duck weeds, hyacinths, lily pads, and amidst this were in bloom— pink lotuses and water lilies in an unusual dark shade of magenta. It made me feel like a school girl on an epic adventure.

I cannot recall the last time I got wet in the rain, and as this young lad worked his oar, my friend and I went deep into the middle of all things pink and green. I imagine heaven to be this serene, this calm…this vivid…this colourful.

Sitting on a tiny oar-boat, or 'donga' as it is known in the colloquial tongue, I was in the middle of a pond and felt like I was one with nature— the drizzle and winds hydrating my parched soul, the calm waters and blooms cleansing my blues. The pitter-patter of the rain reminded me that everything I know as truth, everything that I believed to be mine, are just temporary and a simple reminder that I exist. And in that split second, I had an epiphany; life is as fragile, yet as beautiful as rain droplets bouncing against the leaves lying flat on the pond. 

I was truly on an escapade that took me to a level of tranquillity where even my darkest demons were at peace.

Spirituality, it felt addictive. My mind wanted to forget reality, and my soul wanted to never return. But alas, my conversation with nature and the momentary touch with divinity had to break, because reality sank in. If this is heaven on earth, which I believe it is, I shall return to lose my soul again and again, perhaps in all my reincarnations.

— RBR