The First Snow

If somebody asks me today "what is it that you like to do?" One of the answers would be "I like to travel". But this answer is rather a new addition to the list. I have not travelled a lot as a child. One of the curses of spending your childhood outside your hometown is whenever there were holidays, you only travel back to your hometown. But... whatever, the point is - other than the hot and humid weathers of Jamshedpur and Kolkata, I had barely seen any other climatic conditions. So, I guess, it will not be very difficult for you perceive the idea of my joy when I saw my first snow.

It has snowed on many days here at Lexington and whenever it did I do not recall to have any agitating thought in me. As a child my dad had told me that the colour white has a calming effect on your blood pressure. After seeing the whole world around me clad in white, I could not help but put this fact upon the world: "Wear White When Worried" (the 4W rule).

It was after so many days when I was out clicking alone (last one was at Dawn in Mandarmani) and I must say, and it reminded me of  the same fulfillment as it was in 2009 when I had started this habit. "I am standing in a snowfall" - It was an overwhelming feeling. And with my favorite pieces of music on the player, it was unexplainable. It always is. But what surpasses these is the sudden excitement which creeps into you when you spot something very small but very interesting in the backdrop of a 360 degree of flawless whiteness!

 

It was a Saturday when it snowed the perfect amount. I went out with my cam and started to look for ... well, everything. Everything looked so beauti-peace-ful. I called up Soumen and Moumita and after a few minutes, we were taking a walk down the Cove Lake Drive, leaving our shoe-prints on the thick snow. One of the best part of living in a small city is you don't get much crowd wherever you go. You have the open road for yourself. There are those vehicles which clear the snow from the roads, but thankfully none of those was around to take away the magic of the post card beauty that Cove Lake Drive was that day.

That day, I had told myself silently - "You are lucky. Just keep walking!" I was missing few of my friends. I had never made snowballs before, had not taken a very close look at a snowflake (man! they are complex!) And that's it, there was only one ply on the road, but there were some lovely sights to see. waxy stalactites from the shrubs, firewood covered in snow (ironic), solid transparent ice enveloping the leaves to protect it from dying of cold (ironic again. I have always found cryopreservation, suspended animation etc. fascinating).


Quitting my attempt to prepare a bizarre cocktail of science and philosophy, I would only like to say  - I am sure it is not only me, but whenever it snows, you also cannot help saying these words to the person next to you "Look, it is snowing." No matter how old you are, no matter how many snowfalls you have seen, no matter who is there next to you.

My first snow... By God! It was beautiful.

Till next time,

Cheers!