There is a restlessness in the world. Whether it be geopolitics or the conversation with the vendor from your nearby departmental store, there is a heat everywhere. Sometimes it’s loud, other times it’s subtle. But never is it absent. Urban places give people the means to live, the means to make their life either comfortable for some or at least affordable for others. But it does give you the sustenance to continue living. There are exceptions to it but largely the money in your wallet comes at the expense of the heat we spread and intake. With this daily transaction of heat at every nook and corner we still try to make a calmer world for us. And that comes by being able to afford things, like a spacious house, amenities for travelling, appliances for maintaining preferable ambient temperature, a WiFi enabled home etc.
Yet where do we feel most calm? Mostly we feel most relaxed and content in the lap of nature. Whether it be the gigantic mountains, the shade of a gregarious tree, a beach, or even the hot and dry weather of arid and semi-arid areas including their sand dunes, their isolated yet tall stony hills, their unmetalled routes with thorny bushes peeking in beautiful geometrical shapes every now and then. This thought might be true for all humans irrespective of their social status and education.
But why is it so? What does the Rocky Mountain, or the salty water of the sea, or the thorny roads of the desert or the endless sand dunes offer that a beautiful and well curated house doesn’t? The answer lies in the question. All is comfortable in the latter but afterall it is all “curated” by us. And anything we make, can always be made better by us further. There is always a champion looking at us aspiring us to become the champion. But it’s an endless road. Like the Albatross of the poem “The Rome of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, that we must wear around our neck forever.
In nature on the other hand, we accept what is there. What we see is the best that the site can offer. Even if a few more trees can grow later, or a deeper cave can be carved in the rock from being hit by the waves incessantly, it’s all in the future which we are not seeking then. And that brings the calm, peace and contentment. A far off mountain side half eroded by a landslide that has now started to get green, yet displays it’s not totally healed wounds, still look beautiful and perfect than the uniform shade of the wallpaper in our urban home. And for that reason it is so important for us to immerse ourselves in nature when we can find the time for it.
सैर कर दुनिया की ग़ाफ़िल ज़िंदगानी फिर कहाँ
ज़िंदगी गर कुछ रही तो ये जवानी फिर कहाँख़्वाजा मीर दर्द
Aali Pant 