Seranade, at the foothills of the Himalayas!
Almost every blade of grass that began to grow on the Pong Dam bird sanctuary’s lake bed is sunburnt, and stands straight and upright. Their promising life snuffed out in its infancy under the rage of the blazing summer. The blowing wind struggles to make them sway.
As the foot lands on them you can hear crisp dried grass getting crush-folded underneath as if walking on top of banana chips. Land so dry that dust can be smelt and at times seen as a thick veil, was submerged and soaked in water from the Beas river during the previous monsoons, is now crying for a few drops of rain that would bring some respite.
We drive and walk up a few kilometres into the dry lake bed. The lake’s waters have receded such that land the size of a thousand football fields is in view of the naked eye. Sudden dips and gorges carpeted in a mix of green and brown grass lie exposed to the naked eye.
A bike in red, parked at the edge of a dip shows forth the sharp colour contrast and the scale of the lake bed. On a clearer day, the snow-capped Himalayan mountains will be in clear view.
As silence sweeps through and as the mesmerising beauty of the lake’s waters, and forest cover beyond is being soaked up, in the distance a movement of what appears like a swarm of insects can be seen. Zooming the camera lens, they are hundreds and hundreds of cattle - buffalos, cows and oxen of all sizes and shades - making their way home for the night. While on the move, they stop, look, stoop and graze on available fresh grass sprouts. Maybe, they’ve not had enough.
The setting sun is giving its last embers of light before retiring for the day. Tiny white clouds that dot the vast blue skies glow amber-red reflecting the suns’s glow. Minutes after the sun fades into the evening, the skies resembling a lavender shade is being decorated with bright streaks of lightning, indicating rains in a distant land.
The waters, green-brown grass, pebble-strewn paths, cattle, and skies make man powerless to express the joys of the heart and the mind.
The onsetting darkness signals it’s time to leave, even as a light breeze has just begun to cool the air, inviting me to stay a while longer.
It’s time to sing a serenade (a love song sung at dusk)!
*Pong Dam lake is in close proximity to Dharamshala, Chandigarh and Amritsar airports.