Dear Valley,
Thank you for being such a beautiful place.
We have missed you a lot every day for over a year now. We’ve also missed celebrating your birthday last year. Your birthdays are so much fun. Time to get together—meeting friends young and old, planting and chanting, singing and dancing, playing and watching the football match, enjoying Bisibelebhat and Mysore Pak! It is such a pleasure to walk to the different venues, leisurely chatting with all we meet on the way. I am sure you must be eagerly waiting for all of us to come to you. The dogs, the trees, the stream, the lake, the birds, the insects, the jungle gyms, the playgrounds all must be awaiting the arrival of children and adults.
We are lucky dear Valley, even if we can’t visit you in a large group, we do get to come in small groups, or better still, alone—when we connect with you in a very different way. In fact, this past year was the time when I came to see you and spent a lot of time in leisure—with no agenda… just walking and watching the amazing things, which I would easily miss observing during a typical school day.
Let me tell you about one of the days I visited you. I parked my vehicle at the Zero gate and started walking quietly on the new path. Quietly? Probably not! There was a mat of dried leaves and every step I took made a lot of noise. A few birds were chirping and I could hear the distant sound of a vehicle on the road before I reached the Amla tree. Generally, when I look up while walking under this tree, I would see a few bees around. But today it was very different, there was so much life. The tree was full of tiny insects buzzing around. On looking carefully, I could see that the tree had flowered. Tiny white flower—so inconspicuous from a distance but made conspicuous by the large number of insects that were attracted. I had never noticed the Amla flowers closely. They were beautiful! The flowers seemed to be growing out of the leaves. I stopped and looked at the base of the bamboo tree where my little friend, the tunnel spider lived. Today, it did not mind my presence and allowed me to talk to it. I had not seen this during my earlier visits—it would shy away and enter its tunnel in a fraction of a second. I spent an hour strolling up and down the path, sitting on the little bench once in a while. As the sun started to set, the path felt radiant.
All my visits this year have been very precious to me. Listening to the bird calls, watching the cute little insects, observing the trees, strolling around and just being with you. On one such visit, I got to see an astounding number of marching ants. One of the most beautiful things to observe is people working together. I could see the ants working together on a challenging task of carrying a stick on a fallen leaf. During these leisurely visits, I observed many things, beautiful and intriguing—snail shells stuck on a tree, dragonfly drills, to name a few. I am surprised by the wonders that are hidden in you; I just need to quieten down to see all this beauty.
Thank you dear Valley
for being a home to all,
the big and the small.
Thank you for being you!
Happy Birthday! I wish that you live forever… ever changing and throwing beautiful surprises for all those who connect with you.
Affectionately,
Vaishali
PS: Acknowledging my daughter for helping