Everyday Moments – (#SOL-2021)

30-11-2021

Yesterday evening we set out for a walk and it started drizzling. It had been cloudy but there were no rains from the 25^th. We thought the rains had finally stopped.

On the 24^th afternoon Nagesh came to pluck coconuts. He has been coming for many years. Climbing coconut trees is a specialised job. We have ten trees, he climbed only five and said coconuts in the other trees will be ready for plucking later. We asked him to pluck some tender coconuts. The bunch is tied to a rope and lowered down. Other coconuts are dropped down. He charges Rs 75 per tree. He and nephew gather the coconuts and keep them inside. We keep the dry fronds outside our gate. Some neighbours take them as they are good fuel.

That evening we went to the lake for a walk. It started drizzling, we thought it would stop but it did not 😊. Fortunately we had an  umbrella. The lake looks beautiful with rain drops falling on the water.

We started our book club in 2009 and met once a month. We read books which we wanted to read and talked about them. It was fun. Then we stopped meeting in 2020. We tried zoom meeting once but it did not really appeal. This year too we did not meet. One day I realised that I had not really missed the meetings and felt it was best to move on. I told the others I would not be joining them if they were meeting. Last month one of the members said her husband was retiring and they were leaving on December 2^nd.  We decided to have a farewell party for her. She has been here for twenty seven years. And in my mind I thought it would be a farewell party for the book club too 😊. We met on 27^th evening in a members’ home. We all got something to eat. We wrote our thoughts about her and read it to her before presenting to her in a beautiful file. We all pooled and gifted her a statue of Buddha and a book, Mahabharata by Chaturvedi Badrinath. We had a wonderful time. Before leaving she gifted a book to each one of us, Unposted Letter by Mahatria Ra. It is sad when something comes to an end but life goes on.

Last time I had written about a peacock on our compound wall. I wrote pantoum after a long time 😊.

The Peacock and the Peahen   

The peacock danced

Big and beautiful

Rich blue neck

With shimmering tail

Big and beautiful

The peacock danced

With shimmering tail     

Shades of blue and green

Small and beautiful

With a subtle beauty

The peahen moved quietly

Gathering the family

With a subtle beauty

Quietly moving about

Gathering the family

The peacock danced.

The pantoum is a poem of any length, composed of four-line stanzas in which the second and fourth lines of each stanza serve as the first and third lines of the next stanza. The last line of a pantoum is often the same as the first.

This peacock did not have a long tail