Shanthi Sagar

Very true name indeed! The typical south Indian refreshment place in koramangala… where I daily used to eat idli, wada and south Indian coffee… But what got a special place in my heart is something else… the tree outside shanthi sagar!!!... my thinking tree…
I have spent hours sitting under that tree, enjoying every sip of my favorite coffee and thinking very peacefully, about yesterday, today and tomorrow… everyday! It had become a very integral part of my daily routine. Every evening on my way back home from REVA office, I used to get down near shanthi sagar instead of going home straight away. Initially it was more of a means of spending that critical evening time among ‘people’ instead of sitting alone in my room in Nidhi villa. Evening snacks and coffee was one more reason, but it could have happened anywhere there…
But sitting on the chabutara under that tree never required a reason… just like having millennium coffee at middle gate till 1:30 in night… It used to give me so much peace to be with myself and think calmly… No it was not at all a peaceful place or the time like my middle gate at midnight. But then I feel peace doesn’t necessarily refer to silence or absence of sound.. Its more like absence of all those things which keep you away and separated from yourself!... Familiar people, their activities, thoughts, your duties, responsibilities… all these insulate you from yourself more than the irrelevant noise of strange people! And that’s why having coffee under that tree outside shanthi sagar was so peaceful even though surrounded by so many people and noise. Probably my inability to understand their conversation in kannada also added to the ‘peace’.
There was no one there to ask me why I am sitting there for so long and what I am doing… just me myself and my own time… not just the time I used to send there, but also the time in my past and my future which I used to think about… I don’t know why… It was magic of that tree I guess… I don’t know where I will be tomorrow… But I hope He has made such peaceful thinking places for me… wherever I go…. like middle gate and shanthi sagar…