the gifts we are given..

Let us not try to sugarcoat it..today was a rotten day. Work and life..all of it.

And so, as it had done earlier, the multi-verse gave me a gift.

First a little background. One of the offices that my organization works out of has a bay window. It is stunning. A three-sided, garden-overlooking window that begs to be used as a reading nook. and my colleagues? they pull drapes over it, and sit with their backs to the window. Due to the curtain which runs flush with the wall, I didn't know the window existed for a long time. After I discovered it, I coveted it. I must have told my colleagues a dozen times..if that window were in my house, I would make a window seat with a bookshelf below it, and sit there with a cup of chai in the late afternoon.

And today, I was there for a review meeting. As there were a series of these, and I was at the end of the queue, the meeting I was going to attend was delayed by 2 1/2 hours. Being a Sunday, I was under no pressure to work. I obtained (ok, stole) the key to the library and got me a book- the fantastic 'Valley of Flowers' by Frank Smythe. I pulled up two chairs to the bay window, set them facing each other, stretched out and read. After maybe half an hour, S who works in the office came up with chai for me. I sat with the book in my lap, sipped chai, and watched the sunlight become deep golden in the early evening. Life is good, I thought.

In another 15 minutes, S came up again holding a single biscuit he had salvaged from the plates that were being sent up to the meeting in progress. 'For you, madamjee.'

Thank you, S. Thank you, world.

and now, I am off to the mountains for the next 12 days.My colleagues and I will be surveying villages and forests and bugyals. so basically, I am getting paid to walk in the mid-Himalayas with fun and knowledgeable botanists, to identify plants, to watch wildlife and to spend evenings talking to villagers. tough job, but someone's got to do it. See you on the 16th..with photos and stories..