By Geetanjali Sharma
This season at the Lals’, we have a bloom of Peace Lilies – gorgeous and beautiful.
The summer sun shines bright on the flowers and makes them a perfect attraction for all of us. Set in a glass centrepiece, the arrangement has been designed to appreciate nature’s beauty and artistic expression.
As I sit cross legged on a lounging chair around dusk, the last light shadows the bright green leaves leaving a soft impression in my mind. Palms shimmy as the cool evening breeze knocks on our abode and orange coffee, from the Prakash Store up in Landour, captures the essence of the day – flavourful and refreshing.
Earlier this week, we gathered around our dining table for dinner one evening. While the plates were still speckless, conversations began to flow like the olden canals used to here in Dehra. And somewhere in the middle of all the talk that night, a remembrance of our roots began. The sufferings our ancestors saw, the pain and trauma they endured – all this while holding their ground. Although grief hit them hard, their parents chose a world which turned them into people with wisdom, self- respect and a great inclination towards education. One had the ability to create and grow, she was artistically empowered, while the other loved chasing words and characters to build and write books about.
Learning about such heroic journeys, it’s often fascinating to know how such hearts still live on through their children. These children may continue to blossom the house they built, run a trust in their name or even choose to abandon their roots in the pursuit for peace. However, peace blooms only when hearts are in harmony, minds are at rest and the season is of hope. Just the way the lily finds its way, it’s not so hard to find your way through the roughest seasons of life.
This thought takes me back to the mesmerising galleries of Italy. While hard work is rewarding, the challenges artists faced, almost eight hundred years ago, are unimaginable. Yet, today when their work pulls tourists from all across the world, it’s hard to believe your eyes, for the details in each aspect of every artwork are spectacular and so is the artist’s devotion to peace – peace through creating masterpieces, one grander than the other.
In this season of peace and love, I pan across my lawn, green and lush, in awe of nature, only to find that more peace lilies have bloomed calmly in a quiet corner – wild and gorgeous.
(Geetanjali Sharma is an author and communications specialist. She holds a post-graduate degree in international communication from Macquarie University, Australia.)
