Slivers and waves

Some places are like songs, like music. When you return to a particular location, it takes you back to when you were first there. The feelings all come rushing back. There is something powerful about the sheer mountains and the vast seas. 

At barely 22 years, I went to Pondicherry by myself. My first solo trip, if you will. I had always liked going to the beach before, but the Bay of Bengal by the Pondicherry shores seemed to pull at me. I have visited the place at least 8 times in the three decades of my life but I am yet to go back with my son. Something stops me, you see. The thought of going to Pondicherry as a mother feels different. 

A decade back, in 2015, my first international trip took me to Austria and Slovenia. First trip of me as a part of a couple. Vienna for the song by The Fray, and Before Sunrise of course, and Salzburg for The Sound of Music. Renju and Lakshmi added Gosau and Villach to the itinerary. Klavze 28 and Nebesa Chalets were wonderfully complementing experiences, but Gosau? Gosau had my heart. 

Riding into the Gosau village on the bus from Bad Ischl, with the pretty flowers hanging out the windows and the gently rolling landscape, all the cottages that sprung at foothills of the mountains on both sides of the road, the running stream with tiny, walking bridges over it, the sheep and cows grazing away lazily along, the little school kids who got on the bus mid way, the gentle ascent of the road further ahead and the final stop by the lake, Gosausee.

I remember being in tears by the beauty of what I saw. For many months to come, I choked whenever I brought back to mind the picture of the Gosausee lake and the pretty village. For years I held on to the feeling.

Since then, I have visited places more breathtaking and beautiful. The enormity and diversity of Iceland’s landscape still looms over the memories of the mighty Alps at Wengen-Murren. Switzerland’s beauty remains unmatched.

After 10 years of marriage, Aniruddh decided to bring me to Gosau again. I welcomed the idea of visiting Gosau as a family, to bring Kush to view the world through our eyes a little more. There’s barely a few years left before he hits his teens. So, for his 7th birthday, I agreed with Aniruddh to throw in another vacation for the calendar year instead of the customary birthday party.

Like I said, I have seen places where the forces of nature are raw and scary, and I know that there are places that are seemingly unbelievable still on this planet. But Gosau? Gosau still has my heart. Visiting again with Kush brought back slivers of what I felt all those years back. The innocence weaved between the waves of emotions surprised me.

One of these days, I shall brave a trip to Pondicherry as a family, with my baby, yes.