A Farmhouse Wish

 

I wish to lease 

A farmhouse somewhere in the hills of Idukki

Where the fog and mist welcome the mornings 

An old building left behind by the British owner

With wooden floors and ceilings and a cellar 

Cellar used to store produce from the farms 

A fireplace to enjoy some drinks at night 

Maybe some ghosts hanging around 

To give a company and tell tales from another era

A nice place to enjoy the emptiness of life 

Surrounded by mango, nutmeg, and teak trees 

Pepper creepers crawling on the smaller trees 

Farms of tea and cardamom keep the air fragrant

The Orange trees amidst the tea plants look odd

The bushes of cinnamon trees evoke strong feelings

Along with the cloves and vanilla beans

Maybe some apples and peaches too 

Small streams run down through the farms 

The freshly brewed coffee and tea from the area

May make the mornings exciting for walks 

Along the hills towards the local junction 

To get local news and a bit of banter with people

A place to enjoy the monsoon rains and the winter 

A life away from the cities and concrete jungles 

Farming and enjoying the harvest of produce 

Maybe setting up a microbrewery for wine 

With fresh air aplenty and less humidity 

And a lot of big hills on the horizon 

The rides through the hairpins will be exciting

Trekking in the jungles and boating in dams

There are plenty of things to do 

Maybe I am still in love with the hills 

As I grew up on a barren hill with tapioca fields 

This poem is inspired by this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-omMJ9zRoO8 A couple from London restoring their Portuguese Quinta. The images are taken from Shutterstock and Cardamom Farm Shutterstock 

Sunrise At Kanyakumari Beach

Kanyakumari, 

The southernmost tip of the Indian mainland  

It boasts of a small beach with some rocks

The curves in the map are real down there 

A rare beach to have both sunrise and sunset

We stayed overnight to see the first rays 

In the pitch darkness, we went to the beach 

Stood among the patient crowd to get the best view

On a distant horizon, the sun rose from the sea 

Splitting the darkness with bright light 

With a tinge of orange shade clouds 

It revealed the beauty of the beach unlike under lights 

The sun slowly moved towards the Vivekananda rocks

And then placed itself aside the Thiruvalluvar statue 

A rock-based pathway towards the sea emerged 

Parallel to the Vivekananda rocks 

We slowly walked through it to the end 

We sat on the rocks and saw the sun moving away

Then looked at the beach from meters inside the sea 

It was magical with the sea on both sides 

It was scary, but it was memorable 

As the images of the Tsunami 

That lashed there in 2004

Was still fresh in the mind 

As the dawn bloomed 

Boats started taking visitors 

To the Vivekananda rocks

We rather enjoyed the Vivekananda rocks 

From the rock pathway, as we walked back to the beach

The comments on Twitter, about the best beaches, as part of a question related to my poem The Last Sunset gave me the inspiration to write about the sunrise I saw at Kanyakumari Beach. This is the southernmost tip of India, if you check the map. Both the sunrise and sunset here are beautiful. The images are taken from Shutterstock and Wikimedia Commons.