Nishi Consulting

Spring is in the Air! (Published in NIP in May 2010)

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Winter this year was a bone-chilling, life-wringing torturer. For days together, the grey mists came in suddenly, as if at an invisible cue, rolling and swirling. After snuffing out the weakly burning winter sun, they reveled, like a mob of wanton children, in smudging out all the clear lines of the landscape. Smothered in a blanket of grey, life wilted all around and spirits took a nosedive.

And so when the first zephyr, harbinger of spring, blew in, dispelling the icy cold, it seemed like a collective sigh of relief from all of creation. Life began to reaffirm itself , shaking off the memory of the bygone dreariness.

Now, as I look around , I can see spring’s light feet pattering into every nook and cranny it can find. Leaves and petals that had shied from the cold steely gaze of winter have now begun to unfurl and smile up at the benevolent sun. Colors that had become subdued have suddenly struck bright and strident chords. Gardens are ablaze with the fires of life. The sap is rising in the trees. The citrus trees in full flower are spilling their maddeningly delectable smells into the cool air of dawn and dusk. The mango tree wears a fluffy white veil of blooms that screens off its green foliage. The silk cotton tree decked out in dramatic crimson looks like a siren, attracting the black evil of ravens to gorge on it.

Spring fever is on the rampage, leaving not a single creature untouched. It appears as though nature has declared a ban on singlehood. The female lizard has begun to sashay its tail in indescribable elegance. Besotted by the seduction, the male, otherwise a picture of stillness, bursts into uncharacteristic frenzy. The pigeons which breakfast among the scattered grain in our yard, forget their food, and prance around the female in tantalizing dance. From the regal eagle on the treetop to the tiny sparrow closer to the ground, they are all gripped by the urgency to procreate.

Of all the creatures affected by spring, it is the mongoose that seems to have gone completely berserk. Chirruping and squeaking like a bird, its single-minded and indefatigable pursuit of the female from sunrise to sunset is quite amazing. In this process that may stretch out to a fortnight, it fights off contenders with deadly aggression, and is quite oblivious to small hazards such as the approach of an intimidating homo sapiens.

As part of the entity called nature, is it then possible that this specie of the homo sapiens be left unaffected by spring? With the stowing away of heavy quilts and cumbersome woolens, a sense of physical lightness takes hold of us. Instead of guarding ourselves against the cold assault with protective layers, we now embrace the elements with open, exposed arms. The blood starts singing in our veins. Our step becomes buoyant. We drink in with all our senses of sight, sound and smell the elixir of spring.

Of all the days in the year, spring is definitely the high water mark of the river of life!