TIME OFF AMIDST NATURE

 

                                      TIME OFF AMIDST NATURE



  When I was a graduate student  majoring in English Literature, I read through the lines of William Wordsworth the British Nature poet which goes like this :

" The world is too much with us;

  late and soon

  Getting and spending,

  we lay waste our powers

  Little we see in Nature that is ours;

  We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon !"      Speaking frankly, at that time , these words seemed to be only imprisoned in the pages of the anthology of poetry but they had little impact of reality to be implanted on my happy-go-lucky soul . Today, after 16 years of of my graduation, I greatly feel the truth of these lines. Everyone who is working to make a future on a forein land seems to realize it , I suppose. With this reality in mind , we made a plan to take a day off from our daily routine of work and lose ourselves amidst Nature and her abundance of soothing effects of greenery.

  It was the 15th of March 2009. We, the parents and teachers of the Bangla Language school of Tiong Bahru in Singapore, set out for a day off to Bukit Batok, a nature-park in Singapore. We arrived there at about 9am with all our belongings with which we would be taking off towards our journey towards fantasy land of our hearts. No books, nor pencils, or markers accompanied us through this embarkation towards freedom and mirth amidst Nature.  It was a bright and sunny day, as if the atmosphere joined us in our planned enjoyment.

        It was a sunny and one of the brightest days in Singapore. Even the leaves of the trees glazed with the glaring brightness of the sun that seemed to blind the vision. Going towards the sitting spot from the gate was only a few steps yet it had us drenched in sweat . but at the same time,  the cool breeze made us ignore that too as much as we were yearning for a day of freedom from the daily humdrum of our scheduled life.

    We settled down with all our things and started unpacking. We were helping both as parents and teachers to serve the snacks to the guests in queue with sandwiches, fruitdrinks, freshfruits, chatpati (a savoury snack made of large lentilbeans and garnished with tamarind juice and lemon juice and sprinkled with pieces of boiled eggs and and potatopieces) , meatballs and sweet puddings. It is said that good company makes even the simplest of food tastier than usual. I felt that it was not only a statement but reality !

    After completing the formalities of a successful breakfast session , we joined in the hullabaloo of children's games. The items were racing, skipping, spoon and egg race, mathematics aptitude test, sackrace and to finally end with the race of the teachers and of course raffle draw ! The children participated in all the games fullheartedly and fullthroatedly , though there were tears, arguments, some "oh yeah, then you run the race", some sit-in strikes, some silent cold shoulders, some facemaking by the children were seen--- yet it was a funfilled package of mirth and laughter. Halfway through this merrymaking, we decided that we should take a break for it was almost 12 noon and stomachs seemed to throw in a message that food was essential. Luckily, we saw the van for food arrive and we set the tables immediately. Food was served in an orderly queue and included Bangladeshi items like Biriyani (fried rice mixed with chicken and potatoes and garnished with aniseed, cinnamon, ginger and garlic paste, salt to taste), curry, vegetable salad and beverages or water. The food was delicious and it tasted better in an open atmosphere like this when we were all having fun !

        We remembered leaving out some items of our games and for that we were hurrying up with our meals. But as destiny would have her way, suddenly some black clouds rushed in and hid the sun from the sky. In Singapore, it is very common phenomenon that after a very hot day the shower will cool it to bring a balance in nature and that is exactly what was about to happen.  In about half an hour, it started to rain from small droplets to torrents. All of us ran for whatever shelter we could find, frantically looking for our children who , disregarding our anxiety, had sheltered themselves in safer places. It seemed that our plan was going to be washed away with the rain ! But we were not to give up, we sang songs of rain and cracked jokes about people among us who were drenched in rain but still walking in couples and smiling helplessly . We stayed inside the shelter for one and a half hour and so did the rain !

      As it had started suddenly, so it stopped, the sky was clear and once again we busied ourselves with the activities left to make it a complete day of mirthful events. The next item was DRESS AS YOU LIKE which was participated by the children . This event seemed to steal the show, for children came up with varying stuff of representing Bangladesh amidst a foreign culture in Singapore ! They dressed up as freedom-fighters, as village-brides , as newscasters broadcasting news in Bangla , and also represented characters that made everyone laugh e.g.matchmakers, beggars who had mobilephones with them , etc. Next and the last item was the raffle draw in which teachers , along with parents, won many prizes to take home .

      Finally , it was time to call it a day. We thanked Almighty for a wonderful day gifted to us , but at the same time we did not forget to pray for the salvation of the recently martyred souls in our country, Bangladesh, reminding ourselves of the impermanence of life on this earth. Incidentally, there had been a soldier-mutiny on the 25th of February in Bangladesh.

All of us packed up slowly yet energetically , for we had picked up our lost strength while having fun in the alloted time. I guess, this is why it is said that once in a while , we should commit and give in to Nature and her bounteous gifts bestowed to us . This day and time off amidst Nature had really soothed our hearts and souls to face another day of reality !