It was drizzling when we started the walk. After a few steps with my newly made friends, I decided to take a turn towards an unmetalled road that led to a pine forest. I kept on walking till I reached a place where I could not be seen by anyone or maybe it was the other way around. Sitting alone on a log of wood, I could hear as many voices inside my head as I could hear in the woods. My mind started making travel plans for November, listing chores to finish in Chandigarh and all the bits and pieces of different tasks that should be completed. My train of thoughts was running back and forth and I tried hard to stop thinking and just be there in the moment. I reminded myself of the wonderful surroundings that I was in and closed my eyes to listen to the distant bleat of a goat, parrots squawking, buzz of a bee and slow whisper of leaves which was interrupted by intermittent drizzle. I could not close my eyes for long so, I opened and started noticing everything that was around. I looked up and saw a canopy formed by the tall pine trees. It looked so much like the dendrites of nerve cells in a cluster. A multitude of perplexing things in my head and those in  the view now stood in resonance with each other. I felt like music in my surroundings was well in tune with that inside my head. I couldn’t wait more but took a photograph of the canopy on my mobile phone to capture this moment and come back to it again when there is a cacophony of thoughts ringing my head.

Since the last few months, I have been travelling a lot to meet people in different states. I desperately wanted to have a talk with myself. Although I could not find the thehrav, it gave me enough time to visualise and cherish the ecology of the landscape and the mind. Both of which were in a state of synchronized complexity.

This is my second workshop at Sambhavna and as I write about today’s walk, I remember the time I spent in the last workshop with other participants. All of us went to Ava Khadd in the morning and danced to a Bollywood song. No doubt it was a very exciting and memorable time but we didn’t take a closer look at anything and anyone around us hence the song-  “mujhko hui na khabar”. I danced with them in the meadows as if nobody’s watching but this time when I went for a walk with myself,  I had carefully found a corner to myself where I could camouflage and just be.