Death Valley

We are here. At Zebriski Point.



Now we see people around. Lot of cars too. We climb up to the view point.Take some pictures. The eroded Badlands at the Zabriskie point looks mesmerizing...in a sense, the beauty is so crude, so stark, it seems like an illusion. I have never seen anything like this before. The weird striated patterns has taken the color of the afternoon's sun. We climb down some of those hills, the road is treacherous. One stupid step, and we would go down some hundreds of feet below. However for the sake of photography, we take some chances. Zoya especially is particularly enthusiastic about taking pictures. She sees more through lenses than through her eyes. As for me, I take quite a few. I ask the guys to take my pictures, some that I can put up in my social networking site :P Okay, that's not so true.

Sometimes, I just like to be away from my group and just breathe in the beauty.I do not have words to say, what fascinates me here. May be the coldness in the entire view? The feeling of death; loneliness. The feeling of being abandoned? I don't know. All I can see, is that I could synchronize the view with my thoughts, my feelings and my perception.I wish I were 16 again, when I had the words to express these finer feelings. Somewhere down the road, amidst many chaos, I have completely lost it.

From this place, we can see the flatland valley far away, down somewhere. We only have four days and too many places on the list. For me, coming by car is fun; but hiking through such one place for few days is much more adventurous. I like the feeling of being lost. I like walking. It gives me the feeling of being a part of nature. Of everything around.

May be that's why the idea of travelling alone, by myself has always appealed. When in a group, we are sometimes so engrossed among ourselves, that nature only serves as a background to our merriment. We enjoy it, but feel it much less. When alone, I can absorb it better; I do not stand separate but integrate myself with it.




From Zabriskie we drive further down. We stop next to watch the sandunes. The funniest thing I feel about this place is, we found everything on our way here. From a city we drove, found ice on the road, in some places, now we were in some dry mountains, then we find sand dunes and desert with some random greens, and then there is this flat basin. The geographical variation within one small area was really amazing! Ivan is for some reason excited about a certain green bush. I guess in Russia they don't have many green trees (????) ( JK!) We walk around the sands and then back to the car for the next place.



The flat basin. Ours ears are feeling funny inside. This is because of the great pressure variation. The place is 160m below the sea level. The soil here is cracked into blocks, like a weird art on the floor. It was a dead place, nothing around, a green beer bottle. That's all.



I feel like running, far and far. Let my heart cry out, vent out all my sorrow, burden, pain, tears everything in that vast openness. It is the most strangely beautiful place I have ever seen in my twenty two years of life.

The Road to Death Valley

It is like the movies.
Ivan.
I can see he wants me. I like his blue eyes, his brawny body, his mischievious smiles and the completely shameless way he flirts with me. We are now 100 miles away from Las Vegas heading towards Death Valley National Park. Oleg is driving the car and Soumyo is next to him. Me, Zoya and Ivan are in the backseat ...me between the two of them. Ivan would reason, that he is too "big" to fit in the middle of two girls. Okay, whatever, as long as he is allowing me to have a good view of the window. Death Valley is in the Eastern California, around hundred something miles from Las Vegas where we landed couple hours back. We have not checked into the hotel, only picked up the car from the rental shop and have set out. We screwed things a bit as well. Oleg is a hyperly tensed guy. He takes everything in life way too seriously. And even vacations. I thought that is at least one of the times when people do relax.

Oleg had many worries.Since the past two weeks. Starting from how the road will be (winding, up-downs, snow? dangerous?), to weather, to food to hotel (if they would be nice five star ones...aww!) it was crazy!In other words he is too worried to enjoy, appreciate anything until I poke him and ask, "Oleg, what do you think of the place?" Zoya on the other hand, is full of life, friendly..though she hardly speaks english, but now I am getting used to what she wants to convey in her English-Russian dialect :)

The road is probably the most amazing part of the journey. It was in fact my first real vacation in US. I don't count my trip to Michigan and Wisconsin. They were like weekend trips. Had lot of fun though.

The Fuji Film 12X Zoom was especially for this journey. Jesse and I have talked and planned about my trip since summer. Damned, but I never read the manual. I think I will just take the pictures like a lame photographer.

So far, I have only seen such roads in movies. Where you drive for hundred miles, and meet nobody. Not even another car.Back in India every tourist place, every popular hill side would have rows of cars heading towards them. Every ten miles you would find a small tea stall, a small temple under some tree. It's unique to India, that way.

We are almost here. The mountains are so weird here. Golden and brown rock, striated layers. Kind of funny! I am really eager to get out of the car now and explore.

Autumn in Batavia

“You’ll remember me when the west wind moves among the fields of gold
You’ll forget the sun, in his jealous sky, as we walk the fields of gold”

So many things changed ever since I have come to love this song. Though so many men have come and left ever since then, yet this song has always been meant for just one special man.

We walked through the forest under the afternoon sun, me dancing around amidst the prairies, the butterflies flying around, kissing me…You came up and hold my hand. I was laughing along with the moving breeze. You could see the love in my eyes; you knew I belong to you. Heart and soul, for so many years.
You embraced me. Felt my body against you. Felt me as a part of you. Indispensable. You kissed me.

I am yours.

I had many lovers, and yet no one true as you. Myself, suffered a couple of heartbreaks, and broke a many hearts, and yet the last one I want to leave is you. I don’t want you to walk out of my life, cause I have never in my last so many years tried to imagine a life without you.I don’t know how it will be and I am scared. And yes, I have a boyfriend too.Who while I am here in US, is happily sleeping around with other women. Whom I have tried to fit in the real world, and tried to love. May be I ignore the deficiencies in that relation cause you make up for everything. You have given me everything, and I can never pay you back in that sense. I was the kid, the teenage girl with a scary family, no one to love, not a real friend to talk and understand me. The girl who didn’t understand the meaning of her existance, the meaning of life, and sometimes out of pain, lonliness tried to run away from it. You came in like a package. A lover, a friend, a teacher, a mentor...and someone to look up at. It is the strangest relationship one can ever have. I think.

But I guess no regrets. Or so I feel.

We held hands, and took the longer way to the forests. You know I am not scared. As long as you are next to me, I would never be scared.I just need you to tell me, “It will be fine, June”. As we step in, amidst the big oaks, and the evergreens, the blue sky seemed to dissapear. The colours of fall seemed to be in harmony with my feelings. Like the heterogeneity of contrasting emotions. The poision ivy looked so pretty curling around the tall pine trees. Purple pink and red…the colors so mesmerizing!

So many of the trees have started shedding their leaves. The sound of our footsetps broke the silence of the autumn forest. I want to hold on to this moment. Just us. We said nothing. And yet so much.

I look at you, and see that caring guy, the guy who has loved me like no other. A guy, smart like no other. No one can parallel you, in my world. I wish I could tell you how much I love you. How much you mean you mean to me. But may be the most romantic stories are all those that end with goodbyes. Like ours.

I love you. Sometimes I wish I could explain.