This weekend, Daylight savings comes to an end for most of us folks in the US. What this means is that we will be turning the clocks back one hour on Sunday morning. I must admit even after being in the US for over 13 years, I still get confused with Daylight savings. When are we supposed to turn the clocks forward and when do we turn it back? When we turn it back, do we gain an hour or lose an hour? I remember my husband patiently explaining the concept to me many years ago. Back in India, I had never heard about Daylight savings. Daylight savings is done to make the most use of daylight, he explained. And there is nothing confusing about it, just remember spring forward and fall back. So, you turn the clocks forward in Spring and turn it back in Fall. As simple as it gets. But still does not stop me from being confused about the whole thing. So this weekend, we will be turning the clocks back denoting that we are in the midst of ‘Fall’, the season where leaves change colors and start to fall off from the trees.
Now, growing up in India, I knew of only three seasons, the Rainy season, Winter and Summer. Rainy season usually meant the beginning of a school year, roasted corn, water logged roads, stopped trains, raincoats and later umbrellas which sometimes did nothing to protect you from the rains, rainbows in the sky, the sound of rainfall, the smell of the scorched earth at the first rains (heavenly!) and of course, piping hot tea with hot bhajiyas /pakoras (fritters). There have been many a rainy evening here in the US where I have craved for and made hot bhajiyas/pakoras to go with my evening tea. Nostalgic!
Winter in Mumbai is not that cold as compared to some other parts of India. So, winter usually meant Christmas holidays. Christmas was the time when my Dad’s colleague, D’souza aunty would send us the Christmas goodies she baked. Those delicious goodies were simply out of this world. And then there was summer which meant the ending of a school year, summer vacation, mangoes, trips to Kerala and books, lots and lots of books to read.
It was only after I got married and came to the US that I was introduced to the seasons of Spring (when everything blooms) and Fall (when leaves change color and eventually fall off the trees). A few weeks ago, we made a trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee to see the Smokey Mountains. Everything from the drive (about 3 hours from where we live) to the place itself was a beautiful experience. Fall colors were abundant on trees everywhere. Truly, Nature is the best artist there is. The variety of colors was such an eye-pleasing and satisfying sight. Leaves of orange, yellow, purple, red, maroon (my favorite color) were interspersed everywhere with those stubborn green leaves which seemed to be the ones resisting change. Simply beautiful!
A few days after we returned from our refreshing trip, my husband asked me….Did you look at our backyard? And right there, in my very own backyard, the leaves on the trees had changed color. Fall had visited my own backyard but I had been so preoccupied with my daily routine that I had failed to notice it. And I guess that is just the way it is. Sometimes, the most beautiful things, the most wonderful people and pretty much everything you need is around you right in front of your eyes……you just fail to see it.
Signing off admiring the Fall colors around my home and this quote by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
‘How do geese know when to fly to the sun? Who tells them the seasons? How do we, humans know when it is time to move on? As with the migrant birds, so surely with us, there is a voice within if only we would listen to it, that tells us certainly when to go forth into the unknown.’
