Sunsets with a cup of coffee: my perspectives

Sunsets with a cup of coffee: my perspectives

My mother is one of those people who don’t like sunsets, she never did. She won’t even let me hang a painting of sunsets in our home or put it as my desktop wallpaper. According to my mom’s expert advice (believe me when I say this my mother is a very talented woman & she is the undisputed de facto expert in all thing mundane at our place) sunsets and apparently even its paintings or pictures no matter how exquisitely beautiful they are “bad feng shui”. I never got feng shui as a kid and as a semi adult I still very much don’t get it, despite my semi-sincere efforts to understand it from some crappy website.

 Once when I was 10, I painted her a brilliant sunset with watercolours which she loved but later it’d come to unfold that she only liked it as she mistook it for a sunrise. She even praised me calling me little lady Picasso and for that moment she was even proud of me. Feeling like next Vincent Van Gogh I proudly declared out to her that my master piece was actually my rendition of a sunset. I still clearly remember her expression from that day; her lips pressed into a hard line disappointment colouring her face. She later added in her morose tone that she hated sunsets.  I was bewildered so I asked why. She simply replied “because they symbolise endings.” and continued with her chores unaware of the fact how even the most ordinary incidents the likes of that day could make a child jump into the endless thoughts and what seems to be existential crises of sort. To my 10 year old self sunsets were (and still are) colourful, bright, vibrant and one of the most exquisite sights of nature. The very idea that something so beautiful could be disliked was nothing sort of earth shattering. (Yes, yes I have always been tad bit of an over analyser and self acclaimed philosopher since my childhood or so it seems).

Much later with time I just deduced that my mum is one of those people who aren’t particularly fond of endings. I guess to her sunsets symbolise end of a perfect day which will never come again only to be lost in the chapters of time which can be revisited of course, but only once in awhile in memories. But I have never really agreed with my mother (or for that matter anyone) on anything (cue music from pre teen rebellious phase coming of age movie) and the same stands true for her theory on sunsets as well. I am one of those people who love watching sunrises and sunsets, but one could call me more of sunset kind of girl. The beginnings are great but the endings are just as important. Whilst a happy ending to a day is always a desirable one, it’s many a time not achievable. That’s just something we all learn the hard way. Some days are just not meant to end well. Some sunrises don’t bring the happiness and opportunities we hoped for. Learn to accept it and let go of all that went wrong. Learn to accept your weakness because it’s ok to be weak sometimes. Don’t let the impossibly high standards set by society make you feel like you are less of a man or woman for losing for losing your composure. It’s okay to let your mask of carefully calculated perfection fall off. It’s okay to fall apart. It’s okay to feel like your whole is ending. It’s for you to feel like the air is being choked out of our lungs. It’s okay to cry your eyes out in your pillow for your lost love. It’s okay to feel sad whatever may be the reason be. Maybe you had a bad break up. Maybe you did not get the job or promotion you deserved. Maybe you did not get an A+ on the assignment you put your and soul into. May be you are not doing well financially. God knows there are a million of such insurmountable hurdles each one of us faces. Hard times and difficult situations get the better of each and every one of us. Although it might feel like the end of the world right now, trust me on this, it’s not. Eventually the bad times will pass but you will have to find the silver lining even where there is none. That is the only way to get through the bad days.  Muster up the courage from the core of your being and appreciate the endings, especially the bad ones. The only silver lining to find here is that the worst part is over. The day has ended. It’s a better alternative to be grateful and appreciate what’s in front of us instead of mulling over what could have should have been.  Love yourself and feel at peace with your mistakes and the world around you. It sounds like the clichéd piece of advice. But there is a reason they call it clichéd, its tried and tested and it works. 

 Every day I watch the sunset standing at the roof of my house, cold evening wind caressing my tresses gently, while sipping on a cup of coffee. Somedays I am content and on top of the world planning world domination. On other not so good days I just stare blankly at the infinite expanse of crimson tinged sky, silently sipping my coffee.  I think every sunset gives us an opportunity to sleep off our anger, disappointments and regrets and start afresh for a new day, a new sunrise untainted with our previous mistakes. That’s what sunsets symbolise to me an opportunity; to let go of the hurt, anger & mistakes, an opportunity to revisit the happy moments, to relish & cherish them.  You know what they say; all is well that ends well. So no matter how bad or good a day has been if at the end of the day I can look back upon it while sipping on hot cup of coffee while watching the sun go down without a frown on my face and feel good about it, I consider the day well spent.

PS By mums strict orders I am still not allowed to hang the paintings of sunset in my room! ;)

(All photos sourced from pinterest.)

The Autumn

The Autumn 

If you ask somebody about their favourite time of the year they’d give you all sorts of answers some would say its summers- when everything is nice and warm, they love it because of sweet ice creams, beautiful suntans and pool parties with lemonade; while some would say its winters -well in all fairness who wouldn’t like winter? Diwali, Christmas, Hanukah, New Year, hot chocolate, Chocó chip and resin cookies! What’s not to love!; there are still some others who’d would say it’s monsoons- oh yes now isn’t it just the perfectly romantic season? And of course there isn’t a single homo sapien who doesn’t adores spring, but only the rarest of the soul would say they love autumn. You see most people don’t particularly like the autumn season, I think they don’t seem to like how nature transforms itself this time of the year. People don’t like how the mossy & emerald greens and flowery pinks, reds, lavender and blues suddenly turn into various hues of orange, yellow and brown. Now, one could argue that may be they just don’t like the fact that everything seems to be dying this time around with the trees spreading a thick carpet of decomposing bright yellow and orange leaves on the earth and all the animals preparing themselves to go into hibernation. The life seems to slow down this time of the year. May be people don’t like autumn because it reminds them of the fragility of everything, how everything that once began must eventually come to an end completing the full circle of life, even the trees - the life force of earth - cannot escape it and no matter how many scientific advancements we have made there is still nothing we can do to about it but patiently wait for it to pass and next spring to come to bring everything back to life, you see that’s the thing about people they don’t like to be reminded that there is something much bigger and powerful than them which they cannot control. 
But I totally completely utterly love autumn; I always have since I was little kid. My grandfather and I would go to the park near our house and play for hours. When I'd eventually get tired we’d just sit there looking at the fallen leaves or staring at the clouds.  We'd talk about everything and yet nothing in particular. I'd often shower him million questions like why leaves suddenly change colours; my gramps somehow never got sick of my questions and always lovingly answered. He'd  tell me it’s because he had asked a magician to put a spell on them to change into my favourite colour. We’d laugh and play and go home no sooner than dusk eating Chocó chip ice creams. I loved the fall colours and the park.  My age was still in single digits back then. I was  living in my tiny little imaginary bubble thinking nothing would ever change.That's the magic of childhood everything seems magical. Even the change of seasons. 
If only we'd learn to see magic in our lives when we grow up and not suffocate our inner child to death. If only we'd find joy in the little things and not waste a lifetime to catch the elusive notion of happiness much like a child trying to catch a butterfly. Wouldn't we all be happy? If only.