My most fond childhood memories are the trips to the mountains. Back in India where I grew up, summers meant going on a vacation to the mountains to get away from the busy life and extremely hot weather. And so Manali, a very famous town in Himachal Pradesh holds a very special place in my heart. My first big kid trip with school, the first spur of the moment trip that my dad and I planned. Yeah, Manali is very special. I remember both those trips so vividly that sometimes it scares me how much I yearn to go back. Even though I am repeatedly told nothing is the same there anymore. It is overly commercialized and overpopulated with tourists now. No more the serene beauty it used to boast of back then. Yet, something inside me does not give up.
So today while driving up to Mt. Washington for my little one’s birthday weekend my mind kept going back to the road trip to Manali. It was a fun day spent eating chilli, climbing stairs with hardly any visibility and clicking pictures in rain. The winds were scarily unforgiving yet an experience that we will remember forever. I clicked so many pictures of my kids that by the end of the day all they wanted was to go for a run. Literally, run after dinner where again I was lurking around clicking their candid pictures. I don’t know what it is with memories, they make it worth trying to live then sometimes, they just claw your insides out. I hope when my kids see these pictures decades from now, they remember how much we laughed, ate and ran. Also, nearest Starbucks was 45 mins away, so I cannot wait to get back home to have some good French press. And, I lost my favorite cap in the wind.
Mountains are calling
So why do I feel neglected
Unforgiving winds
Blowing away the pain
They don’t question my attitude
Embracing me with my doubts
Tiny hands loud with laughter
Holding me tight,
“This is so fun, mommy!”
Only my anxious brain reminds me to hold them close
For they are growing up too fast
Fast like the winds
“But so much fun!”
Black Coffee and Grey Stories 