A new life, new places and the memory of past
Sitting after more than a year, it seems plausible that the way things contrive to happen tend to do so with a meaning to it. I worked for the first few years of working life at Keystone in the Nilgiris. Reaching Keystone was a momentous decision on its own, for I traveled far to reach here, with no sure grasp on what is likely to happen in the future. I landed here and it sure was a great experience.
I lived in the hills, way above the rest, frequently went to Mukurthi which is the abode of the gods, worked like mad - really hard at times, procastinating at times, but working nevertheless and then enjoying it to the brink. It was an experiential learning, the kind few others have in comparison and what I learnt most was from the place. The hills, forests, the people who live in these hills and forests. Traveling across these landscapes and sometimes to other countries as well, it was a lifetime of learning.
But learning teaches us to prepare ourselves for the next step in life, next step is not necessary an upward step.... but more than that.... it is a forward step... Stepping forward, I left eystone and those times behind. Often, when I am in doubt or in two minds, I look back and see how would I have responded. How would I have taken that step or not taken it. The bad decisions that I made, teach me to not repeat them or even if I do, refine the mistake and make it in a higher scale. This is what life teaches us. And this what my time in Keystone taught me.
Now, after a year or more, I am back in Kotagiri. I feel good at being here, it does feel like home, a home that was mine for four long years.... and from where I moved on.. to the backwaters of Kabini and the natural world of Jungle Lodges...... It would have been lovely to stay at Kotagiri till the end of this life but it is even lovelier that I am seeing new places, and in the hope that Keystone flourishes as it does. And I soak in the world. Kotagiri is now a memory of my past, as smooth as Chandigarh was, as sour as Delhi was and as exciting as Dubare was.
I lived in the hills, way above the rest, frequently went to Mukurthi which is the abode of the gods, worked like mad - really hard at times, procastinating at times, but working nevertheless and then enjoying it to the brink. It was an experiential learning, the kind few others have in comparison and what I learnt most was from the place. The hills, forests, the people who live in these hills and forests. Traveling across these landscapes and sometimes to other countries as well, it was a lifetime of learning.
But learning teaches us to prepare ourselves for the next step in life, next step is not necessary an upward step.... but more than that.... it is a forward step... Stepping forward, I left eystone and those times behind. Often, when I am in doubt or in two minds, I look back and see how would I have responded. How would I have taken that step or not taken it. The bad decisions that I made, teach me to not repeat them or even if I do, refine the mistake and make it in a higher scale. This is what life teaches us. And this what my time in Keystone taught me.
Now, after a year or more, I am back in Kotagiri. I feel good at being here, it does feel like home, a home that was mine for four long years.... and from where I moved on.. to the backwaters of Kabini and the natural world of Jungle Lodges...... It would have been lovely to stay at Kotagiri till the end of this life but it is even lovelier that I am seeing new places, and in the hope that Keystone flourishes as it does. And I soak in the world. Kotagiri is now a memory of my past, as smooth as Chandigarh was, as sour as Delhi was and as exciting as Dubare was.
