I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching.- Ralph Waldo Emerson
To reach our destination we come across many processes sometimes we love the upshots and sometimes fall for a moment before that. We unconsciously adopt things as a habit for momentary pleasure and that molds our persona. So its a story of my habits which I adapted to survive at that moment but became an ingredient of my persona.
It was 2006 and I was 11 years old and waiting for dusk and down had become my daily ritual. The front of my house was facing east which had hillock, a river and forest and back had another hillock higher than the other. My house was standing in the middle of the ground and blessed with marvelous scenic views.
Getting up at 5 am, waiting for Sun to rise, lurking behind the hill and spreading its wings on water, hills, trees and all over. As it moves to the sky, things reflect its character, delineate the layers of clouds, and creatures move out for daily chores. After finishing my daily chores around 5 Pm, run back to the rooftop sit at the same place, and wait for dawn, unlike dusk things will lose its character and fall into darkness. As the golden period starts, the sun sets down to the west, creatures go back to home, tracing clouds with sun suffusing tints.
Unconsciously I created this bubble and still living inside it. Whenever I feel sad, low or restless I find a quiet place like my rooftop and sit there for hours, and it shapes my mood like the subtle changes in nature.
In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks. -John Muir
It’s 2019 and I am 24 years old, things have changed I no more live at home, I get up late and my home has lost its shape and the sedentary place is missing from the rooftop. But its essence is in my heart and I carry it with me everywhere I go. Sometimes I shape my rooftop to empty garden or a solitary road or a mass near a stream, and dusk and dawn to its water and meditating with that noise of moving water carrying pebbles along its way. As time slipped from my hand, I shaped my solitude like the surrounding I am in.
From the last two years, I have been living in Delhi and it is blessed with people and historical monuments. Well, I enjoy both while walking on my solitary trails. I limited my solitude hour to weekends. So, on the weekend I walk through the old part of cities or new landscape built to shape the isolated mausoleum, step wells, and places, sitting alone at a corner and grasping some seconds. Sometimes I move out of the city and explore nearby cities alone.
Down to Gehenna, or up to the Throne, He travels the fastest who travels alone.- Rudyard Kipling
My solitude has been shaped to solo traveling. After college, I started traveling and living in an anonymous city for months in search of lost or deteriorating architecture. It has become another medium to understand and explore the culture and daily ritual of a place.
“It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.”-Ralph Waldo Emerson
I truly believe Emerson, so while traveling neither I miss any moment to interact with other people nor forget my solitary way. Many people won’t be a part of your inner circle but they can inspire you and help you become a better version of you. So I waved hand to hundred people while traveling to my destinations, did a daily new ritual to live and among those I adopted some for my life.
Be a loner. That gives you time to wonder, to search for the truth. Have holy curiosity. Make your life worth living. Albert Einstein
My solitude has shaped me into a wondere, I go to new place roam around the street, talk to people learn from them,capture some moments and move on with a gesture of thank you.
If you like this story and wanna listen more stories from me ,stay connected.
