Monday, November 17, 2008

Land of my Heart

Today's the 14th anniversary of my mother's death. Looking back, it seems unbelievable we've gone through all these years without her..

Sad reflections apart, the view this morning is one major reason why I a-d-0-r-e winter up here in the mountains. Thick, low lying clouds fill the hills and dales making for a brilliant illusion of stormy, wild, white seas.


Having lived most of my life in mountainous terrains, I often find it extremely taxing spending any great length of time in the plains. And in especially bad moments, it gives me a feeling close to claustrophobia not being able to see anything beyond the next few buildings. In the mountains, you always have a vast, unhampered view of houses and people below or above you.



Perhaps I unconsciously draw comfort from the fact that I can actually see life around me or perhaps I'm just a mountain woman at heart.

20 comments:

  1. As a mountain lad I hear what a mountain lass is saying!

    Maybe in the mountains you are closer to heaven and god. Maybe in the mountains life and feelings are more genuine and simple. Maybe in the mountains you can reflect on the deeper meaning of life and yet be grounded in reality. Maybe in the mountains the essence of life is more distilled and is just more pure than other places.

    Or maybe because mountain life is hard, more difficult, more arduous, more strenuous than any other but it is more beautiful and more purposeful too. For sometimes we choose the difficult over the easy because that is the right thing to do.

    Hope you found solace in the mountains and its beauty on this day of remembrance.

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  2. lovely pics..i love mountain, i love mountain people!

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  3. A lo van nalh leh tawh ve! This is what I miss most about Mizoram! I know what you mean about the suffocating feeling you get in the plains when the farthest you can see is a few buildings away. Kan en nawn leh a pic ho khi, a va han mawi tak ka lung a tileng turu tawp! Mahse ka hmu ve thei trep tawh tho ti tawh mai ang :)

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  4. Thlalak i thiam sawt riau mai, hma i sawn tlat, min zirtir ve rawh

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  5. Loch, that's beautiful. Your eulogy on mountain life brings back to mind an old song Mrs Murray used to teach us in music class...

    Gorkha boys are big and strong
    To Kathmandu we walk along
    Heavy though the load we carry
    No complaining comes from me
    I am a Gorkha boy so free
    These very mountains speak to me

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  6. Thank you, azassk :)

    Jerusha, it's not always like this every morning but yesterday it stayed this way for several hours so I was really glad to be able to get these shots. Be so nice if we could meet up next time you're here.

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  7. Chutia mi duls? I nau cam kha rawn trick chhuak la ka lo jirtir ve ang che :)

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  8. Actually the school song that accurately reflects what you have written is the Singalila Song. It is a truly beautiful song about the spirit of the mountains. That is something that your wonderful pictures reflect too.

    Lyrics are by Dr. Charles Swan who went to MH school, Darjeeling in the 1920's I think. He died recently in US.

    At the risk of inducing ennui on other readers here it is in full.

    -------
    Singalila Song

    Along the Singalila skyline
    I'll climb the rhodedendron road
    To find beyond the fragrant springtime
    The spirit's loftiest abode
    And where the mountains meet the morning
    The world held in a moment's span
    I'll hear the Wisdom of the Timeless
    To love my God and serve my fellow man.

    Among the echoes of the valley
    The Teesta roaring to the sea
    I'll join the people bearing burdens
    And sing the song that sets men free
    And where the plains spread out before me,
    I'll join the city's stirring throng.
    With mountain beauty in my spirit
    I'll sing to them my Singalila song.
    ----------

    Anyone feeling the burden of life only need to head to the hills of Mizoram! What a cheerful thought.

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  9. You must be missing your mother a lot. When I read the "Five life lessons" post again today, I could see everything in a new light.

    Never been to Mizoram but I've seen enough in pics to know it has to be one of the most beautiful places on Earth. Have never seen a place as fascinating as Aizawl either; like the whole city's carved out of a mountain range.
    And I can completely understand how someone like you, who has lived an entire lifetime in the hills, could feel so uneasy on the plains. If I were to be living in a place as beautiful as the one in these photographs, I would never be happy anywhere else.
    Mizoram. Gotta drop by sometime :)

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  10. Mojo, yes I do miss my mother very very much. I lost my father young so Mum was our everything.

    And yeah, first-timers are usually always stunned to see Aizawl with all the houses so precariously hanging onto the cliffs!


    Loch, the Singalila Song was always one of my fav GHD songs. I even put it down in one of my blog posts sometime ago.

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  11. I nu hriatrengna paper-a in chhuah kha ka chhiar. Ka rawn call lek2 a, ka huaisen tawk ta lo a nih kha. Hriatreng tlak Nu i nei tih hriatpuitu pakhat chu ka ni ve...

    I pic a nalh thei, a 'winter wonderland tlat tawh'. Ka lo contri ve ang -
    http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/1589/sunday1eg5.jpg

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  12. that is some crazy cloud formation there! looks so pretty.


    ps. do you mind if i link your blog?

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  13. Wonderful, beautiful photographs. Made me remember my one and only visit to Aizawl all those years ago when my first view of the city was blurred by clouds. Am using the first pic as my computer wallpaper in office. Hope you don't mind.

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  14. It's hard to stop missing one's mother. Mine left 26 yrs ago, i still miss her.

    Great shots. Have you had a photo exhibition or considered having one? Do give it a thought.

    Really lovely cloudscape.

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  15. Kan naupanlai a chhum hi kan en vang vang chuan hleuh hi ka chak tlat thin. Ngaihtuahna tamtak min siam a..Chhum ang mai hian mihringnun pawh hi mawi tak angin sang takah awm mah ila. Engtikni ah emaw chuan ruahah chang a leilung a kan luan ral ni te a awm leh thin. Mahse lui luang zel te hian thamral mailoin a a ai a lian zawk tuifinriat chu an fin thin a. Chu mi kan thlen ve hma si chuan kan mawhphurhna te hi hlen a ngai si a nih hi. I thil post chuan ngaihtuahna tamtak min siam e.

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  16. samupa, nia Vanglaini ad kha ka nau lungleng deuhin a lo ngaihtuah chhuah ve anih kha. Mi hrang² pawhin ka lung a ti leng lutuk tiin an rawn phone nual mai. Ka pic te khi tlemin contrast ka pe hlom anih khi.

    anne dear, sure go ahead, I'd be honoured :)

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  17. Plats, hey I'm flattered you're actually using one of my photographs as your desktop wallpaper. When was your one and only visit here btw?

    mesjay, how perfect life would be if we could have our parents with us forever, wouldn't it? And nooo, I'm hardly good enough to have an exhibit. If there was an amateur show where I could somehow sneak in a couple of my most prized shots, that might be more my scene :)

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  18. sawmte, i van ngaihtuah ril teh raih bik ve. I lungleng deuh ani maw? I mawhphurhna te kha han hlen thuai la helam chhum zin riaina hmunah i rawn in suan chho vat don nia :)

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  19. Nice snaps. Ka online theilo reng a, chuan champhai lamah ka zin ta bawk sia, ka lo comment tlai a, sorry. Hmanah Mussorie ah ka kal a, chuta ka hmuh chhuah chu, kan ram ang hi phai lam mite chuan nuam an ti em em a, kan vanneih zia hi.

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  20. A va nuam om bik ve. Nia hmanni YHAI trekking lo kal hovin tiang chhum pics hi an hmet molh molh e an tih kha. Mawi an ti ve ngang aniang

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