Dil se

What do you generally like doing on an evening, where you just want to engage with yourself?

Drinking brewing coffee or hot ginger tea

Eating onion rings (kandaa bhaji) or samosas

Listening to songs of Kishore da, Asha tai and Gulzar or listening to ghazals or any instrumental music or watching funny, bone tickling comedy movie

Reading books like P. S. I love you or Love Story or Deepak Chopra's Who will cry when you die

Viewing photo albums of school or college days. I am not talking here of the digital pics here, but the ones which our parents clicked, innumerable of them which captured all the moments and fun we had as kids and our parents still consider them as their greatest possession. It was indeed the trend till the digital boom invaded our lives and pushed those albums and black white photographs into oblivion.

Reading old hand written letters by a friend or a relative. You might be wondering, in this age of e-mails and web chats, who writes letters? But, my aaji writes letters to my mavshi, who is in US and mavshi replies to those letters as she knows very well at this age, aaji won't be able to write e-mails or do web chats. My mother-in-law wrote letters to me before I got married. We got to know each other better through letters as that time my mother-in-law was not techno savvy. My father-in-law has also written a letter to him after he visited us in Bangalore after the wedding for the first time and when we bonded really well. My mavshi, who was just 1 yr older to me also wrote me letters from Pune when we both were in college. I really enjoy reading those letters now and re-visit those days which have etched permanently in my memory.

Making greeting cards, book marks and candles for my friends on their special occassions. I might not be making cards as good as Archies, but there is a personal touch in my cards and many good wishes and blessings which often do not come out that properly in a card which we buy in the shops. Bookmarks in the books of my friends remind them of me and that is a very good chance to be in each other's thoughts and prayers, isn't it?

Talking to a friend, who has been out of touch for a while now works wonders too. Just thinking about the lovely bond which we shared at that time and the wonderful time which we spent together in those days freshens us up and gives us a new energy and lease of life. Talking or rather sharing helps us in releasing a lot of pent up emotions and it also aids in healing mental worries, which do not really have any physical form of medicine in today's modern world. People, who do not think talking is a tonic, please excuse me. You need to really have someone to open up your heart to and then tell if talking is really a waste a time or something else.

I asked Atul about his "Dil se" moments and he instanteously replied "Sleeping"...
My enthusiasm of asking him that question ended that very moment. Then he added, he would go for a walk in the evening, just like that without having any aim of going somewhere in particular. Yes, I second him on this. I like it too, to just go for a walk in the park or an area which has lot of green lushy trees and watch people in the park or listen to the sounds of birds and feel the cool evening wind. That suddenly makes me relaxed and unwind.

So friends, these are a few things which I really like doing..

Dil se

What are your Dil se moments??