glittering diamonds.
The sky and mountaintop were one. The clouds in the air and the huge snow balls were one, the sky and earth were one, I felt I was in a different world, different universe one that is all has a universal colour…White.
A very memorable experience it was. Our next destination was river Insh. My eyes remained open unable to close my eyelids at the serene beauty in front of me. There has been a heavy snowfall here too.. Wherever you look whichever way you see there is beauty all around. The kind of beauty, which shouts out aloud of its existence, which flows like the flow of water. We the people living in this era of manmade creations when we come across such breath taking spectacles can’t even describe it.
My heart truly, truly praised the lord who created this beauty and chose us to witness it.
Our next stop was river spee. They have built a commando memorial near the bridge of this river in memory of the martyrs of World War II. It is said they were trained on the foot of mountains right here. Their memories have been immortalised here by their teacups, guns, caps and such things they had used here during training along with huge bouquet of flowers in respect of their contribution.
My heart churned when I saw the cap of 21 year old his photograph besides it. His eyes told me they hadn’t seen much but had a very resigned look in them as if saying they had seen enough and hadn’t liked what they had seen.
In spite of my mind resisting my heart felt what his mother would have gone through and I cringed in fear. Was 21 years all you were destined to live dear boy? I asked the cap, the photograph half expecting the answer.
Why do people fight? I can understand people fighting over their differences but why do nations fight?? Something’s I am utterly incapable of understanding…
I left the place with a heavy heart but my sad face suddenly burst in to a smile when I saw my baby all geared up, with an ear-to-ear grin on her face and a fishing rod in her hands. She must have grown but in her excitement she didn’t look much older than a six year old to me.
16:00 hrs and she was ready for a mission …mission fishing. She was very excited but I didn’t understand what was all this fuss about fishing .she wasn’t the only one there. There were others, who shared her enthusiasm,
Fishing I am told is a popular weekend activity here. Well thanks to the fishing we had a fresh trout on our dinner plates today.
I was terrified looking at the sea at 6:00 the following morning. There was something different, too misty and we could not see the seashore at all. The water had come until the footpath until the wall.
None of us showed any interest in getting off the beds. had tea once hoping to shrug off the laziness ,,had another cup of tea still didn’t move until 9:00 hrs.
We had to keep up our appointment with the intelligent mammals on earth .The Dolphins.
We reached Moray Firth on time. Absolutely chilling air constantly blowing at us leaving me shivering, but the cold wind never stopped blowing all day. They made us wear blue colour jackets and we set off sailing into the North Sea. We sailed very far but our friends never seemed to turn up. The captain took us quite far in their search still no signs of Dolphins It became quite apparent that our friends hadn’t kept their appointment but sailing in the sea in a speedboat was an amazing trip in itself.
Though we were based in Inverness we were quite busy covering the other cities. Today our idea was to explore the beautiful Inverness.
The northern most city of Scotland. This was very beautiful and attractive city. It houses a big university and a small airport. Population is very less here. You can see old monuments and churches from far off distances. We saw St.Columba church. St.Columba came here in 521 A.D to the highlands. a very important personality in this part of the world, St.Columba belonged to the royal family of Ireland. He brought the Christianity to the picts here and to a large extent responsible for the widespread following of Christianity here.
There are malls on one side and 1500-year-old churches on other side. It is like modernity looking into the mirror and finding antiquity on the other side. River ness flows through the centre of the city hence the name Inverness. These cities are the synonyms of cleanliness and peacefulness.
Now we decided to visit the countryside of this part of the world where we had halted so far dolphin bay suite. The glittering towns through our balcony had always excited me and invited me always. In the back of my mind I always knew we would go there. As we got nearer I got a feeling they might be celebrating Easter. I could feel the festive spirit in the air. I could see the colours of Easter spreading on the evening sky.
There were thick lush green fields; there were heaps of fresh corn and carrots along the roads. The herds of lovely sheep and hen were running around the village. Little kids played noisily on one end innocently. The streets were adorned with lovely streetlights .I don’t know why I watched the village with great love and affection like it was my own. It felt in strange sense home coming to me, best part is my folks were as happy as I was, they didn’t feel much different than me about the village.
We decided to return to the bay suite and our return journey gets better when we were reaching back. Seals were for some reason I don’t know were swimming very close to our shore, People were getting their binoculars out .We watched all this with excitement. There was something about today’s weather that got them here or might be they were sailing here to say us good-bye. Good-bye to you as well seals.
This brings our journey to an end. My best journey to any place on earth till date. The thought of our return journey. The thought of leaving Inverness is looming in my heart making my heart heavy.
I didn’t want to leave this place. I would never leave it if it were in my control. It had such a captivating effect on me.
I don’t know what the travellers to this place had felt before but let me pen in a few lines the thoughts that crossed my mind.
We were here only for a few days but I some how get a feeling of having lived a lifetime here with my family and the best part is this lifetime seems a day to me.
Confusing thoughts, lovely memories captured my mind.
The Stuart castle standing in front of us, the old church on the street behind, those tall pine trees, the pine fallen on their feet, its fragnance, the evening walks along the seas of Scottish ladies and gentlemen, the many conversations ness held with me, the many stories she told, her melancholy she shared at Urquhart, her childish excitement she shared at Eilean Castle….
How could I leave her behind, but was I really leaving her behind was I leaving anything behind at all??
Wasn’t I carrying these memories with me back to London?? back to India?? Forever in my life…has it not become an inseparable part of my life? Later in my life when I look back, Scotland would spring to life again and I would relive my days here again in those huge castles. I would visit ness every day of my life here on, live in my memories, and sit on her banks
And then I suddenly felt much better, After all I wasn’t leaving mystic highlands behind, I was taking her with me, I was taking ness with me.
My mind was suddenly tired after all this thinking. Tired but relieved and now my hands our tired after all this writing. Tired but relieved …
I feel excited about penning down my whole experience, to share with you, to relive and to cherish forever.
Thank you dolphin bay suite ,thank you Inverness ,thank you to wonderful people of Scotland, thank you my family who made it happen and who made me take this much needed vacation ,thank you daughter darling for all these lovely memories. And finally thank you dear god for giving me this lovely daughter.
This brings to end one of the most beautiful 10 days of my mom's life..... please do not mistake this piece of writing to be mine..... i am merely the translator... mine was not the heart that felt these feelings first hand..... it is a work of my mom's.... so full credit to her....
I consider myself lucky to be her son... and consider myself lucky to have had the honour of
putting it into a language we all understand ...
My Brilliant Memoir
By Asmath Sabira
Copyright 2011 Amina Aslam
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