Magical, mysterious and always wonderful -The Golden Hour

Watching them walk by

I absolutely adore a certain time of the day.

 Most people call it it sunset, but I'm choosing to call it 'The Golden Hour.' 

The time itself is magical and I can and have, spent endless hours  (on different days) watching the magic unfold.

In this particular post, I'm sharing a couple of photographs, I clicked at the Qurum Beach, Muscat. This is a place I frequented for my evening walk, for over two decades and each of those walks had something unique, something magical about it.   And you are right, I love to go down Nostalgia Lane too- take it from me, it can be a truly rewarding and enriching journey. 

The Twlight Zone

  

Of course, if one's not at the beach, it can be equally magical- albeit in a different way altogether. I'm fairly certain that there are many of you out there who feel the same way as I do.

 Would love to hear your point of view as well so please do share.....

Of Loss, and of hope - Different wells within your heart

A moment in time- Frozen forever

The poet Shamsuddin Mohammed (Hafiz)  once famously said, 

"There are different wells within your heart.

Some fill with each good rain,

Others are far too deep for that."

These are lines that hold so much of meaning-they talk of hope and they talk of loss as well. That  particular kind of loss that is buried deep inside a person's psyche and will remain there, perhaps till that person's last day.

Those same lines assumed even greater significance one day not so long ago when I was in one of the seaside towns of Oman. I came upon this man just sitting there lost in his own thoughts.There was something about his body language that was heartbreaking.

Just something about him and his surroundings.

On an otherwise, bright, beautiful and clear day, he just sat there .

Unmoving.

What was going on in his mind? That of course, is a million dollar question and one that nobody will ever really know. Right upto the time he chooses to share it with someone who actually cares enough to enquire.

So there it is, that particular moment in time, frozen forever.

Every now and then I think and wonder.

"Hope he's doing better today."

The Good Samaritan-Losing it then finding it

This evening my husband Avi lost his I Phone.

And then miraculously got it back -courtesy 'The Good Samaritan, Ramanuj'.

In fact, he had actually lost it in the afternoon,but it was about 6 in the evening when he realised it was gone.

But to go back to where it all began-we had been invited for lunch to one of our old friend's home in Gurgaon and en route we decided to stop and pick up a beautiful bouquet of flowers. That entire project must have taken us ten minutes and after that we headed directly to the Sachdevas place and had a great afternoon with 'Makki ki Roti' and 'Sarson Ka Saag' being one of the many things we enjoyed.Topped only by great company, much laugher and some great Gajar Ka Halwa to round off the afternoon.

As it happened, my parents were a part of the luncheon too and since we don't live too far away from where we had gone, we asked them to drop in for a cup of tea before they headed back home to South Delhi.

So Part Two of our afternoon went off even better than the first and it was almost six Pm when they left.

At which point Avi asked me to call his phone as he couldn't seem to find it.

Nothing unusual I thought as we ask each other to do this all the time- sp. within the home,

So I dialled and he walked all over the house, looking for it- and even more, both of us were straining our ears, trying to hear it ring..

It must have rung about 15 times before the automated tone told us that no one wasavaialable to take my call.

No problem I thought and dialled again while he went out to check the car.

This time the phone was answered- by a strange male voice..

Hello? it seemed to be more of a question, rather than a response. Shocked as I was,I quickly collected my wits and asked the person on the other end of the line- "Aap Khan Se Bol Rhaen Hain?" ( Where are you speaking from?) -all the while looking at the screen closely and seeing that it really was my husbands number and that I was making no mistake..At All!

Answer-'Ham Gurgaon Se Bol Rahen Hain'..

Curiouser and curiouser I thought, but then asked,'Ap Mangal Bol Rhaen Hain'?( the cook at the place that we had just come back from)

'Nahin- Ham Mngal Nahin, Ham Ramanuj Bol Rahen Hain'.

Which then left me speechless with horror..

Avi had com back in by then and asked me to check where this person had got this phone from.

And his response- 'Hamko Yeh Phone Sector 53 min girl pads mile tha'( I found it fallen in Sector 53)

Which was exactly where we had stopped to buy the flowers! To cut the long story short- he was very keen to return the phone and in fact told us that had been waiting to get a call from its owner.

And so we arranged to meet him at IFFCO Chowk, and pick up the phone.

Difficult to describe our thoughts, emotions and conversation as we drove from our place to IFFCO Chowk and anyone who knows what the traffic is like at that place at 6 pm will know exactly what we had to go through.

Parking our vehicle at an HP Pump close to the building he had indicated at IFFCO Chowk we told him our car number and colours and in under 5 minutes Ramanuj was there!

A small man with moustache in his late thirties, Ramanuj was nearly a Security Guard ( or something very much like it) for I spotted jacket with ISS written on it when he turned, he came on a cycle and tapped on my windshield.

Avi was overwhelmed with relief and thanked Ramanuj profusely. Handing him a Rs 500 note which he took happily, we learnt that he had been  cycling past that spot which the flower seller had clearly vacated when he saw the phone.

Deciding to help the person who he knew had clearly lost it, he discussed it with a young couple working at an office nearby who advised him to keep the phone on and wait..

Which is exactly what he did..

Till I called..

And the rest..is my story which you have just read.

Regrets if any, I didn't get a photograph of Ramanuj.

Thankful beyond belief for just as we reached home, the phone battery died..

The lingering thought..

What if?

And finally a huge thank you to Ramanuj.

He could so easily not been our Good samaritan for the day..

Odds and Evens in Delhi is working -Seeing is truly believing!

80 Re tweets, 47 likes and counting.

And all because I used this photograph clicked by me on my phone at about 12 noon on MG Road connecting Gurgaon to Delhi on my Twitter account-asunaina to show the world a scene that could only have been dreamt about- the road actually looked like this!

Driving on MG Road at abour 12 noon-5/1/16

Must admit, like many others, I too had been extremely sceptical about this Odds and Even experiment and in fact, had spoken to many of my friends and acquaintances about my reservations.

Until I went to MG road yesterday.Then  through many other parts of Delhi. It could well have been a scene from about 30 years ago( the kind you see in old B.W photographs) except that it was really happening.

The icing on our cake- We could actually drive in to village Masoodpur, and emerge unscathed on the highway back to Gurgaon on our return journey at peak traffic hours at about 6 pm.

Now Rome wasn't built in a day and I'm not saying that magic happens overnight, but what I can say is that the Odd and Even experiment in Delhi certainly has our support.