Oh the clouds we carry!

Night View from Ranikot, October 2018 - Pic Credit: Nikhil Shakya

Up in an altitutde 2000 meters high, I let myself go. Took my shoes off; threw myself over the wet grass. No point fighting against the gravity. I allowed everything to sink in, all the tiredness, all that swirling thoughts. I stared as the clouds of muckiness rose. All that pilled up stress. I watched. As the dusk surrendered to the night.

Oh the clouds we carry!

I was looking for a get-away, to unwind all that karma-net woven over time. I was staring above. Suddenly I was drawn. At awe with the floating clouds, whizzing past the endless night. Little by little as the sky opened up.

The vastness of the universe it opened up.

A quiteness filled my heart.

I forgot where I was.

I recalled of our struggle all the way through the winding roads, earlier that day. How we sang along the way. How we drove through the narrowest of passages. Oh how we were unaware of that which was coming? It doesn’t take much time does it, to lose of what we are here to live for? It doesn’t take that much to keep forgetting. All that city life, the rat-race and the crowd has a way to stack up in our memories.  

Six of us old friends. Whether we were from different college batch it didn’t matter. It doesn't matter when the whole trip connects you. Each of us like strangers, branched off through the years in our own trodden paths.

We drank away to bring that ego down; smoked up to burn that wall to the ground. Never ending barbeque to fight that seeping cold. As we struggled. To keep that fire going. To keep that conversation flowing.

Photo Credit: Anuraag Shakya

We sat around

Ring of fire we circled

Lost into the smoke

On a cold night, when

Darkness whispered into the ears

Only the forest to watch our guard

Burning woods they kept us sane

As we wished

We wished for it not to stop

Prayed in silence, as we watched

The woods turn into ashes

Time turn into a memory

As I remember now

Only that remains

Is that fog, that cloud

Oh I want to go back

Lay down, watch the clouds sway

For the winds to take them away

For the sky to open up

As we forget where we are!

As we circle, as we wish

For the night to go on!

As we forget where we are!