The Melodious sound of Happiness.

I had mentioned here that I had fallen love with Rajasthan recently. Here is the main reason behind my falling in love at first sight with that beautiful place.

The first thing I noticed when I got off the train in Jaipur was the incredibly cold weather. I expected the place to be cold but not 'I can't see what's in front of me' cold (Spectacles got fogged). We took an auto to the guest house, and what a terrible mistake had it been not to take a taxi. My hands were numb and I couldn't feel my legs after going through the fog for almost 15 minutes to reach that place. And to our further dismay the caretaker fellow was still asleep. It is 7'o clock for heaven sake. We had to bang the gate and shout ‘bhaiya bhaiya koii hai’, for a few minutes until a half asleep guy showed up. I am pretty sure I had icicles hanging down my nose by the time I got in. Guess what, more good news, it seemed that we could get the rooms only at 9'o clock. That fellow left us in the lobby saying he would see what he can do, which translates to wait in the lobby for 1 and half hours. I was totally disappointed. First the cold and now this.

Amma tried to brighten up the mood by pointing out that the fellow was at least preparing food for us even though we had woken him up so early. I questioned her how she knows that he has not gone back to sleep. She told me that some noise which sounded like kettle/cooker was coming from the kitchen. But I felt that the sound was coming from outside. And the first thing I noticed when I stepped out to investigate the noise was of course the cold. I ran back inside (just in case something like the last scene from Day after tomorrow happens), wrapped another shawl and stepped out in the fog again. The sound was definitely coming from right in front of me. The fog slowly lifted with a flute interlude. Lo and behold, on the branches of bouganvilla were hundreds of sparrows chirping. I called my parents out. And we stood there in the cold mesmerised in the beautiful beautiful sound of these sparrows. We could only spot a one or two even though we could hear hundreds. They were all well hidden in the canopy of bouganvilla.

Sigh! How long it has been since we had woken up to sound of these cute little buggers here. Rajasthan doesn't need a house sparrow day to remember these tiny creatures. Let's do our bit in saving the dwindling numbers-http://www.worldsparrowday.org/