The smell of fresh grass,bright sunlight kissing gently on the the back of my neck, faint wind playing with my hair, tiny winged insects crawling up my aeroelasticity notes and lustrous ducks walking past me, all of these betokened the mighty onset of spring and the peril of winter. Even though spring started quite early and many talked about it as the Dutch would do, it was only today that I really felt the dainty season through my veins.
I had proceeded up the library roof top around 6 pm when the library shut down on a fine April Saturday. If you think I am a geek to sit with books on a day like this, don't you dare! If you bore my work load, you would condemn me for not working harder! Anyway, there were hardly few people up there and the weather was perfect. Not windy, not cold, not hot, not humid and definitely no clouds! I sat at the top of the slope and opened by notes and started pouring my brain cells into it. I gradually leaned on my back still muttering the notes under my breath with my backpack acting as a pillow.It was so relaxing and soothing, just like my bed back home! :D That was comfortable. Owing to the sub standard bed and "cot" that was provided by the housing department, I had never felt like climbing onto it with my books. And there I was on the soft grass reading away like it was a novel. The warmth was just too apt in magnitude and I could actually feel my skin smiling broadly on the rendezvous with the sun after months!
And just as I was absorbed into the surroundings as with myself, there came along a couple of ducks quacking along, may be something funny cos I felt like laughing too! May be they crack(quack)ed up seeing so many papers strewn all over me. Still on the ground, I could see the deep orange of their webbed feet like never before. Do all ducks have orange limbs? Now, I am confused cos I don't remember seeing such a beautiful orange on any animal. Or may be they were highly patriotic ducks, they just had to wear their country's colour all the time! :P Wait, did they think I was lifeless, cos the minute I got up to grab my phone camera, they almost flew from there! I had to literally run around the library dome to get a picture of those cute companions. they just refused to be photographed showing their tail all the while and keeping a grim face! hmph! x(
I just let them be and walked back to my books. Seeing that I meant no harm, they came back to my study spot and kept me company. They probably sensed I needed quiet and so they maintained it. With ocassionally a few swans soaring over,lot of light and air and not a human to disturb, I did a lot more than I would have done locked up inside!
After a while, I snapped up my belongings and walked down the only slope in Delft as the sun decided it was time to call it a day! The winds were picking up now determined to defeat my hair in all good spirit and the ducks were heading back to their nests on the edge of the canal opposite the library that was posing like a shy damsel letting the last of the ducks wade through her. It still felt perfect letting Newtons gravity and inertia laws prove themselves while I had to just put one step forward....:D
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Back on the ground and near the EWI building, which strangely was standing still (every time I pass by it, I have the feeling that, all its 20+ floors sway to Holland's aeonian winds! :D ) was when I saw the planes flying into the evening sun with contrails trailing meters behind. Was glad to see the metal birds back in action after the Iceland volcano puked ashes at the skies and stopped the very thing from moving that would feed me bread and butter next! This global warming reduction technique is not only effective but also a spectacle to behold, especially if you do not know why! If you haven't seen it before (your kidding!) or you wanna see it again, here is a page of some photos I clicked.
One of the good things about Holland is that you can look up at the skies and walk your ground without the fear of falling into a pothole! And so did I utilize the benefit fully today. It looked like as though the pilots were as eager as me to reach out and hold on to the sun for a long time as they flew directly into it.. If you can enlarge the photo, in one of the pics, it actually looks as if the plane is ramming into the sun, causing a solar flare ring outwards. Just as I wanted to lower my gaze, few gulls soared by across the contrails crooning in unison the song of spring and the lightness of hearts. A panorama that let my face relax in a smile and my mind perch on the tallest of the greenest trees!
It was time to get back to my nemesis as the weight on my shoulders prodded me hard. As opposed to the winter and the autmn, my mind though loaded with a million worries, seems blissfully light and the confidence hops back slowly just like the ladybird skipping on the bark of the young tree right beside me. All of the flora were sprouting leaves and colorful flowers in full force. I would again be able to pluck those apples from the nearby tree in few days and there will be golden daffodils waving out to me wherever I go. Some air in the wind that said things would get better now....
A flame of warmth, happiness and expectation surged through me leaving me smiling more than ever outside my humble dwelling.... Spring, as I have never before seen, is definitely rolling on its fastest wheel... :)
aeroyogi
