Wednesday, January 18, 2012

A little piece of sky.

If I'm away too long from nature, I get emotionally 'sick'. I need regular doses of un-manmade things. I need to look at big trees, clear skies, clouds, starry nights, sunsets, full moonlight, bodies of water and animals to stay sane. Do you?

Living in the city, even one like Shah Alam, I am deprived of many these very things that bring me happiness. On the 11th floor of an apartment that is ironically known as Riverview, my window looks out to the other apartment block and only allows about 20% view of the sky because MSU built a bloody building that covers what little is left of what can be seen from my window.

In order to survive, we have to improvise. My obsessive need for a glimpse of pleasure drives me to go to great lengths. Lying on the bed, I hang my head off the edge, as close as I can to the floor, to block out any human structures out of view. With my hands over my head, supporting my body from sliding to the floor, I do a Yoga-esque balance just to look at the sky.

But it was worth it. For one moment in time, I get to pretend I'm flying with the cottony clouds underneath me. I feel peace, albeit for just a while.

This is what it looks like lying upside down.







Last weekend, my parents, my younger sister Nani took a drive to Gopeng, Perak. We wanted to check out the school which she will be teaching at, starting the next day and years to come. She just got her posting as a French teacher there. We rarely drive up north, so I must say I'm pretty envious of the scenery. Just the day before, I was telling my sister, I wanted to see clear blue skies, streams, waterfalls, caves, mountains, animals, the sunset and a starry night sky. I got to see ALL of them on that stretch of highway.

The drive was only like less than 2 hours to reach the school. And the school, atop a hill, has a magnificent view of Banjaran Titiwangsa complete with ponds and flying birds. The school building is even reminisce of Enid Blyton's Malory Towers or Hogwarts. A square building with 4 'towers' and a courtyard in the middle.

The drive back, it was getting dark, and we a got a short glimpse of the fiery orange colour burst of dusk amidst trees and limestone rocks. Slowly the orange fades away to purple with ribbons of blue , red and all the colours available in God's palette, getting ready to draw night's dark velvet curtain.

Against the ink black backdrop, millions of twinkling bright lights scatter, some stars brighter than the others. Forming invisible paths playing join the dots with your eyes. I tried to squash my face against the window to get a better view, but my neck was starting to hurt. The soft pale glow of the moon, blue against my hands, casting playful shadows on my clothes. Amazing how the moon only just reflects the light from the sun without any light of its own, yet it still has this much light. Thank God, the Exora's windows are huge, so there's more surface for viewing.

Looking at nature, how perfectly beautiful it is, as it always is, Masya Allah. God is the greatest.




1 comment:

Unknown said...

grt writing..i m impressed