Winterlude

(View from Gulmarg)

Winterlude, Winterlude, my little daisy,

Winterlude by the telephone wire,

Winterlude, it's makin' me lazy,

Come on, sit by the logs in the fire.

The moonlight reflects from the window

Where the snowflakes, they cover the sand.

Come out tonight, ev'rything will be tight,

Winterlude, this dude thinks you're grand.

- Dylan

After a very long time, today I'm happy. I have absolutely no reason to. I just am. It's December, my favourite month. It's one month (apart from the four months during the monsoons) when nothing can keep me down. So, I'm walking with a theme song (this time, 'Time is Running Out' by Muse) playing in my head. It's not a happy song, but it's catchy, and everytime I walk, I pretend i'm catwalking to the song..he he..

I have lovely memories associated with winter, even though I was born in a city near the sea where winter doesn't exist...But I've travelled a lot. So I'm putting my top few winter memories associated with these places, in no particular order:

1. Chandigarh: Rambo's house and the bonfire on the terrace. Hiding under the covers, with feet on the heater for days and nights, without anyone knowing we're there. The Rose Garden, walks on Setor 17, boat rides on the lake, bike rides in the cold.... a surprise dinner in an evening gown in the freezing cold.

2. Shimla: Living in a colonial home in the valley, waking up to an English breakfast, Tomato rice and whisky on a freezing night, the skating ring, dreaming of first snow, and prophetically waking up to it the next morning, catching snowflakes and watching them melt...

3. Gulmarg (Kashmir): Riding a horse all alone in a jungle, falling in love with him and crying when being made to part with him.

4. Manali: Wetting the bed at 5, blowing rings of cold smoke, the hot springs and the girls with cheeks like tomatoes. Papa putting brandy in a glass and adding snow to it, gulping it down...

5. Dharamshala: Seven days alone. Momos and movies. Jessica and her ipod...Sasha, my wild interlude with a Russian who carried Pushkin with him..McLeodGanj and all the strangers who became friends...a night on the terrace with women from different countries, watching the stars, realising that ultimately it doesn't matter where we're from. Women everywhere all want the same thing..love...

6. Darjeeling: The coldest days of my life...waking up to the sun in the room...admiring Yeti footprints in the Mountaineering Institute, wondering if he really existed...

7. Pokhara (Nepal): The German, Japanese, Swiss, and other exotic cuisine restaurants by the lake. Strings of coloured lights and Bob Marley playing in the night...one of the most beautiful towns I've seen...

8. Jaisalmer: Cold winds from the Sam Dunes. Me crying to go back home, like a spoilt city brat. Eating delicious ghee khichdi and gathe ki sabjhi at a roadside dhaba. The golden havelis where we wandered, wondering why Ma was crying and why Pa was not holding her. Understood as I grew up, that men never realise that all they have to do when their woman is crying, is to hold her. Daft men!

9. Pune: My second home, those nights out in the cold...walking around Koregaon Park, sipping lemon mint tea at the German Bakery...the New Year's night at the Corinthian, the endless, endless memories, now hidden away for no one to see...I think I forget as well...

10. Gold Coast/Sydney: Sydney: Getting out of a plane, where the cold wind was so strong, that the stairway trembled and rocked...Blue Mountains and the story of the Three Sisters...standing outside the Opera, vowing someday I'll come back with an intelligent, caring beau in arm :)

Gold Coast: Freezing winds from the sea...wonderful, wonderful friends (Bret, who fell in love with me)...wild nights at strip clubs, drinking coffee, eating greedily...crying when leaving...

I think all these places wouldn't have been the same any other time of the year...Winter...bring me another gorgeous December this year!