Autumn Diaries- IV: October Scenes from Rural India.

I took this photo on my way to a village. I tried to capture this moment in my camera as the bike raced through the darkening rice fields. As I sat cross-legged on the motorcycle with a light back-pack and a light heart, I saw the unending autumn fields bidding goodbye to the setting sun and i loved it. Yes, I love this nomadic life that takes me from big cities of towering skyscrapers to remote villages where life still goes on without electricity, from cities where thousands of human heads rush past me on their daily commute, to lands where mountains, sea waves and tall trees are the only dwellers.

Yes, I have just returned from a trip to some nearby villages. Would you like to know how autumn makes its first impressions on village fields and farmlands? I am posting here  a few pics :

I asked a girl to accompany me to the rice fields in the morning. I loved that meandering narrow village path and the expanse of the dewy green on which the morning sun seemed to have thrown a glowing transparent sheet of gold.

Yes, there – under those trees – in a small village hut, I passed a beautiful starlit night. I woke up in the dead of the night to find a firefly twinkling like a star inside my mosquito net . . . 

While returning from a walk around the fields in the morning, I captured this typical domestic scene of rural India:

I started for another village in the noon. The road was rough. I stopped to have tea in  a local market and as I sat under a tree having tea in  a clay ‘kulhad’, I saw this snake-charmer playing ‘been’ right in front of me :

And NOW, let me tell you that I am all set for a week long autumn vacation which begins tomorrow! And you know – making preparations for a perfect holiday is always a joy :

• My husband and I cleaned the room, every corner, mopped the floor, dusted all the doors, windows and shelves.
• I changed all the sheets and covers and decorated the corner table with two little clay planters shaped like puppet masks. i purchased them long back from a local fare.
• I tried my hand at painting my favourite terrace wall (I will tell you more about it later!), we tightened the wires and tidied my young bean-climber on the terrace (well, that is my favourite autumn haunt when I want to read and dream undisturbed).
• with paint stains on our clothes, and hands and feet soiled by the hard work and cleaning – we two had a perfect tea together.
• After finishing the work, we sat on the floor – tired and happy –  planning what to draw on that newly painted wall, where to find a cane partition to make the space cosy and tidy, what kind of lamp-shade to give that space perfect feel and even what ‘rangoli’ pattern to draw on the floor. I will be posting photos of it as soon as it is all done and ready!

Hubby left for a week in the evening and I went to station to see him off. He will not be here during this week long holiday and I will miss him.  But t the end of the day, I felt tired and happy. I had a sound sleep, got up early today, walked around in my garden before the sun opened its eyes and wrote this new blog post.

I saw this tender creeper weaving the golden threads of the October sun right at at my door step in the morning.

This is my fourth blog post in a series I have started last month on Autumn. I shall be posting more on how Autumn is doing here in India and in my house, and how I spent my much-awaited autumn vacation this week. Meanwhile, I would also like to hear from you also about this lovely season. Do feel free to drop in your comments and experiences. These are the links to the earlier posts you have enjoyed and appreciated:

1. my first post on the beginning of autumn: https://chitraraag.wordpress.com/2015/09/13/afternoons-have-become-thicker-like-a-big-spoonful-of-sun-dissolved-in-a-glass-of-water/
2. My second post on the memories of an autumn vacation spent in the Hills of Pachmarhi:https://chitraraag.wordpress.com/2015/09/26/that-last-old-solitary-rock-that-sits-since-ages-on-that-rough-mountain-edge-under-the-dancing-shade-of-the-old-trees-of-wild-saal/
3. My third post – a gallery of photos of my room, house and garden in this beautiful month. https://chitraraag.wordpress.com/2015/10/02/autumn-diaries-iii-with-full-moon-autumn-s-first-cycle-kwaanr-begins-in-india/

(A few words of request: If you have also posted something on this season, do send me the link to your post because I am collecting this season’s best posts on fall and shall be posting the compilation by the end of this month.)