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Somewhere over the rainbow

I was driving home after work yesterday when I saw the most beautiful rainbow in my life spread across the entire sky before me. I can't begin to express the emotions that ran through me. My first thought was my kids. They had to see this. They had to. They have never seen one. I sped along the highway hoping to reach their school before they boarded the school bus and all the time I kept saying to the rainbow "Please don't disappear before my kids can see your beauty."

My kids had already boarded the school bus by the time I got to the school but my excitement had not died. The rainbow was "following" me!! Like a lunatic, I kept telling all the little kids still in the school compound that there was a rainbow in the sky and took them to show it.

As I drove off, I called my youngest (5 year old) and told her to look outside the house and she would be able to see a rainbow. Before I could say anything else, she slammed the phone on me. Hah! Finally someone to share my excitement J.

When I got home she told me that my wonderful man took her to the window and not being able to see any rainbow told her that he was going back to do some work on his PC. Can you imagine that!?!?!? Men!!!! Aaaarrggghhh!!!! I grabbed her tiny hand and we ran out of the house, laughing our heads off running in the rain AND we spotted it. She was so excited and we just stood there admiring the rainbow, drenched and giggling like kids (at least SHE was acting her age).

We waited for the school bus to come by and when my older two chipmunks alighted, we danced together in the rain, laughing and trying to chase the rainbow.

So what's the fuss?? It's just a bloody rainbow. A stupid refraction of light. Not many people see what I see. I may have looked absolutely silly yesterday but I may probably never have that moment again .just as it was .all four of us doing a rainbow dance in the rain.

It is the beauty of nature. Everything around me. Despite living in a concrete jungle, there is still much about nature to appreciate. The eagle that flies near the lake near my house. I see it every morning and believe me, it is breath-taking. The numerous trees that are blooming the brightest and most colourful flowers in this extremely dry season. The little birds singing. The mynah trying to make a nest with his mate on the tree in front of my house. From my walks and talks with my kids, they can identify many species of trees, plants, birds and fishes.

God knows when all these are going to disappear. To a large extent we do not have the choice to be in the rat race (for many reasons) but there is no stopping us from taking a 5 minute breather to enjoy this earth and its miracles (what's left of it).

As for yesterday and the rainbow people around us certainly thought I was bonkers. No one else was excited. But it did not and does not matter. That moment in time is frozen in my heart and mind and I hope in my kids too. Will they share my sentiments when they are my age and have their own children ..I certainly hope so and if I am still alive and kicking then be rest assured I will still be doing the rainbow dance with my grandkids J. Care join me????

Posted in Blogs.



41 Responses

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  1. Karizmatic Keyur says

    Full of Life… :)

  2. bidisha says

    What a beautiful post… it created the same magic that the rainbow created to you. You are a great mom for sure, grabbing the right moment to savour together with them… and your kids would be happy for it and proud of you for this for sure when they grow up….

  3. Surendra Dubey says

    very nice!ye indradhanush ka varnan pyara manko mere chhu jata hai, itna sajeev chitran kaha kisi se ho pata hai, sach mein aapka prakriti se, bahut hi gahra naata hai.

  4. Arabinda Mitra says

    spledid photograph & nicely presented
    arabinda mitra

  5. Arabinda Mitra says

    spledid photograph & nicely presented
    arabinda mitra

  6. sanat ray says

    it’’s like a thing of beauty … and a joy for ever.

  7. dilip krishnan says

    as beautiful as a rainbow!

  8. Bible Hero says

    Where is the Bible Quote? Please keep quoting it otherwise you will forget it!!!

  9. MaiR says

    rainbow is indeed a sight to jump around, isnt it?

  10. tamilini A says

    Hey! Even I jump around at the sight of a rainbow and reach out for my kids and we watch it with great admiration. It doesnt happen everyday and it is like natures rampwalk for us:) Beautiful post alongwith a breathtaking picture.

  11. ravi kumar says

    very nice

  12. RUDRA says

    lovely narration, a kind of joy transmitted.

  13. Madhavan PK says

    Rainbows. We all bow too. Yes, tis magical. Also when it rains and shines at the same time. Back home, they say when it does that, the foxes are getting married.

  14. FC Maheshwari says

    Hai Shalini, Perplexed to see the nature so beautiful that I came out of my home to watch if its still there in the sky.God is as beautiful as His nature but his nature is not permanent like Him.So we shud love Him.

  15. FC Maheshwari says

    Hai Shalini, Perplexed to see the nature so beautiful that I came out of my home to watch if its still there in the sky.God is as beautiful as His nature but his nature is not permanent like Him.So we shud love Him.

  16. Shivaja says

    Me ready to dance with you, now and also with your grandkids and also my grandkids. hehe Enjoyed ur post !

  17. sareena nafeesath says

    oh shalini:))Living in kerala,……i really feel blessed to feel so close to nature:)Love rainbow……a looooooooot!!”deivam ore velia kalakarana”………!!by appreciating the greatness of his work…..we appreciate God!Loved your post:)))

  18. Jo P says

    ur a very cool Mom! :)

  19. kanu says

    nice post. people are so busy in their lives that they do not have the time to appreciate the beauty of nature. God is a wonderful artist who has creted such a beautiful earth…

  20. Rahul Aggar says

    something worth reading, nice post.

  21. aravind das says

    it really stays only for few minutes…but it leaves a great impact…..

  22. aravind das says

    loved the post

  23. Sameera Nandi says

    There definitely is something magial about rainbows. First it looks so lovely and second, you dont get to see them that often. Rainbows definitely take my breath away.

  24. HariOm Chawla says

    Nice post, Shalini. Our life has become so artificial that we”ve lost all contact with nature. Thanks for sharing your contact…….

  25. Shivendra Mohan Singh says

    Too good …. very nice Depiction

  26. PGR NAIR says

    Ha..ha…Shalini..I loved yr bolg and I too share your madness..today morning as I walked into my office I spotted three storks in the garden before our engineering building ..My God, I was spotting them for the first time in Saudi and all along I was wondering how they landed here…I too have described my rainbow experience in my blog on Nature-”Rhyming with Naturre”. Wish you had read it….Your excitement coupled with that beautiful picture has made this blog captivating ..PGR

  27. Srinivasan Parthasarathy says

    I do get excited by Rainbow and caricatures drawn by lightning.
    When you are closer to nature,you are closer to GOD.

  28. Thought Pari says

    wow!!!b”ful picture accompanied by a gud post

  29. surendra pandey says

    We have also feeled the beauty of rainbow. When rain off it seems above in the sky. Attracts to us. It expands his beauty and gives message to everyone that fill your life with colourful joys.

  30. Cubes 3B says

    Sure ! Nice post, no worries ~ Cheers Cubes3B.

  31. chandrakant parmar says

    hamre andar ke bache ko bada hone mat do. bache hi bane raho, janah rainbow dikhe dance karo.nice post

  32. PAV says

    Let the child in you never grow up. I fully share your joy on spoting the rainbow. I do also feel the same way…on seeying the rainbow, watching the rain comes through the hill sides, the cacaphony of birds at the break of the dawn..and a lot more. Enjoying the nature has no gender bias, it only requires the appropriate mindset.

  33. venkataramana says

    there certainly are many who still love to ”feel” the ”getting-drenched” experience in rains but very few learn to savour the joy and sheer ”bliss” of eyeing the rainbow in it’’s wonderful spectrum-show…Congrats on teaching it to the next generation[in times when most others let the kids bask in the ''joys'' of rain-dances and such other artificial delights,man-made...Enjoying such Uninhibited pleasures of Mother Nature are what makes a Woman more ''Learned'' as well as ''Human'' than the men who give a go-by to such truths[on one pretext or the other].May your tribe increase on Earth which is battling man’’s vagaries on Nature.

  34. Buddha says

    ha!, i could feel ur emotions. Once i called my wife to show her a yellow and red butterfly, but i didnt tell her what it was. she came running to see what surprise i had for her in the garden and she was quite disappointed to see a mere fly.Thought iam carzy or stopped growing since i was in my early schools.good post

  35. bhisham bhutani says

    Dear Shalini,

    How r u? yes it is really experience i have also enjoyed with my daughter. But alas, i cant enjoy it fully since i am a colour blind person and cant see all the colours in it.

    But anyway nice!!! Secondly you at one place have described it as “bloody rainbow”. Why?

  36. parthasarathi basu says

    Before reading the last para I was just thinking ab out your children when would come of your age and on any attraction of nature like this they would remember you! At least some times I do! Very nice expression of the moments joy which you value!

  37. BEST FRIEND says

    Nature……what is that? is the question many of middle aged people will raise if you put a question to them on nature….with so much urbanisation and the rat race going on who has got the time to think of anything else……for them nature might mean time spent at some hill station during the short break they take from the rat race…….even today’’s youngsters would ask the same question once they have joined the race for gaining monetary happiness…I really love nature and if I start talking on that it would go on and on………will see if I am able to put those thoughts in the form of a blog like you did today with the one on rainbow……..it has disappeared from the Mumbai skyline….anyways nice post…would have loved to join you in the rainbow dance.

  38. vithal patel says

    RAINBOWS ARE ALWAYS MAGNIFIECENT. In Mumbai when it was not a concrete jungle then rainbows were frequently seen and enjoyed…

  39. Monalisa Smile says

    I love rainbows too…learnt my VIBGYOR thanks to rainbows and mum and dad…lovely post shalini