Of painted skies - and more...

It had been a tiring day. We had just started driving back from Tucson towards Phoenix downtown. My trip to Phoenix had been quite eventful, to say the least. Three years of city life had made me forget what it was like, to be in the wake of mountains. This trip had brought back lots of hurtling memories from my childhood – a few pleasant ones and some unpleasant ones too. But there was something special about this evening, which made me want to forget them all. For as far as I could see, there were mountains adorning either side of the highway. It was all so mystical......so mesmerizing, that we hardly even spoke – A and I.






Sitting in the car besides him, my eyes searchingly followed the wide expanse of mountains that lay all around us. I had a vague feeling that I was leaving something behind - what I did not know. My gaze lingered on in mid air for a while.....and then re-focussed itself on a bunch of stores by the highway. A quick scan registered Starbucks in my mind – and no sooner than it did, A asked – ‘Coffee’?? I smiled – wondering at his amazing capability to read my mind sometimes....

We pulled over besides Starbucks, and went inside. It didn’t take me long to decide what I wanted, A got something too, we paid off and walked on, out of the front door. A whiff of fresh mountain air took me by surprise, as soon as we stepped out. The effect was both chilling as well as refreshing. We hardly took a few more steps towards the car, when my eyes skimmed over the evening sky towards the left. No sooner than they did -I stopped.

On my left, was one of the most beautiful visions I’ve ever seen in the evening sky. The sun was setting somewhere far off, behind the mountains.....and as it did so – it left behind it a vivid trail of hues....... it was a vision that instantaneously took my breath away. The moment I saw it, only one thought crossed my mind - if someone ever gave me a paint brush and asked me to paint my own sky – this is how it would look – a mix of deep crimson, dreamy yellow and a subtle blue.......



....Kahin door jab din dhal jaaye.....


We stepped up onto the elevated divider, dividing the small mall from the highway to get a better view. What started of as isolated streaks of these three shades in the distance, soon became a beautiful medley of colours. It had barely been five minutes, when the colours started receding off one end of the sky......and deepened down the other.

....Visions of a painted sky....


The whole phenomena lasted less than 15 minutes.......but 15 minutes that I would never forget in my lifetime. I felt a sense of pure joy, I hadn’t felt in quite a while. The colours were nowhere to be seen now, but their magic still seemed to linger on......like perfume!

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and sank in what was left of the day. When I opened ‘em – A was looking at me.

‘What are you looking at?’ , I chided.

‘What do you think?’, he said, quite matter-of-factly, and smiled.

I smiled too - and off we went towards the car, back to where we had started from......