My Sunset Boulevard

(Sunset over the Pantamint from Dante's point - spring break trip)
So here I am in Starbucks, alone, sipping mocha blissfully at 5:30 am on a Saturday morning. There’s the delicious chocolate cupcake too! If you are wondering how the indolent creature pulled himself up to wake up this early on a WEEKEND morning, I wouldn’t blame you That’s a perfectly legitimate question. To clarify – NO, I didn’t wake up that soon. As usual, I simply didn’t sleep. I was lamenting to Deepti a couple of hours ago about how I no longer have the drive to write. So I brought my laptop, with a dogged determination to let loose some random ramblings.:). So, as I was hurtling down the road to the coffee shop, I saw the sun rise. It was desperately trying to peek through the clouds. I like sunrises and sunsets. They are those moments of tranquil and serene beauty, when you find yourself in unison with nature and life. Come to think of it, we are bestowed with two such moments every single day!. In Chennai, Elliots beach was a great place to see the sun rise and illuminate the sea with a radiant golden hue. We used to follow it up with a game of cricket on the beach. The terrace tank of my apartment was another great place to lie down and see the sun set into the sea, while contemplating about life, universe and everything. I remember some particularly brilliant ones in my Ooty and Kodaikanal trips. These were the cool-misty-mountain-hop sunsets that were so awesome for introspection. The one that is permanently etched in memory is one that I saw in Shimla last year – it was setting down behind a distant silhouette of hills. The sky was a sparkling orange to begin with but mellowed down to a bluish black. It was a prolonged sunset and I completely lost track of time.

Back in August, when I went to meet Arun, I saw a spectacular sundown over the Arabian sea in Nariman point,Bombay. And there was this sharp, penetrating, bright yellow sunlight bathing the Yosemite Valley just before nightfall, when we were driving back from a hiking trip last year. I also vividly remember the purple haze (that Jimi Hendrix would have been proud of) in New York, when we watched the sun set over the Manhattan skyscape.

Perhaps one of the most iridescent sunsets I have ever seen were in Washington DC. The sky, embedded with patches of purple, orange and red, provided a breathtaking background for a view of the Lincoln memorial from the Capitol Hill walkway.

DC had this knack of producing amazing sunsets and multicolored skies everyday when I was there. The cloud patterns were particularly intriguing.

We went on a hiking trip to Death Valley in spring break this March. The sunset over the dunes was exhilarating. It was Dali-esque – surreal beams of light emanating at different angles from the blue sky. For a noisy bunch, we were overpowered and sobered down by this spellbinding sight.




Of course, I forgot to mention this - sunsets and sunrises often remind me of the incredibly cute Julie Delpy :). Rings a bell?