The White Blanket


The car tugged slowly up the hill as I sat in the back seat, looking out of the window, looking at the rooftops turning to dots, the huge roads of the city becoming just a line. The horizon widening after every hairpin bend we cross, and slowly there was fog creeping in between as we rose higher and higher.

I sat there dazzled at the beauty of all the tiny spots and lines woven into the fabric of green and brown and yellow.

The visibility of the path became fainter and fainter as the clouds clouded it.

I slowly slipped my hand out of the window, in a futile attempt to catch the cloud which slipped through my fingers, wetting it slightly.

The car had travelled quite a long distance with ever waning visibility.

The lack of information of what's around was kind of creepy honestly. But, I was waiting for that moment when we reach the end of this monochromatism that we had plunged into. I was waiting to shoot out of the dense mist and see light again. I was the proverbial fly stuck in a box, trying to find my way out.

Then did I notice, the visibility was improving as we advanced. I waited with baited breath as to what awaited us on the other side.

Well, how can I put it into words? What awaited us was more than just beauty! It was unadulterated sanctity! It was about the time of sunrise, and we were above the clouds. It was like another world up there.

The sky was tinted with all the colours of the longer wavelength.

The silhouettes of the trees that covered the hill added a flavour to the already beautiful sight!

Then did I realize what Robert Plant meant when he sang "your stairway lies on the whispering wind" in the song Stairway to Heaven. Indeed the path that we took was the stairway and this was heaven.

As the beauty sank in, the last line of the song played in my head, "and she's buying a stairway to heaven"

As goosebumps erupted all over my body, I contemplated my life and realized I was stupid to think I could actually buy the stairway to heaven.



Photography by Rahul Niranjan

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