Many years ago one day, a certain dear K had asked me whether I am a ‘sea person’ or a ‘hill person’. I did not know what that meant except. Why would someone ask a question like that? Is this common knowledge? Did everyone know whether they are a sea person, hill person, cocktail person, or shots-shots-shots! person? How sure does one have to be?
K always asked me questions that made me wonder what mankind was up to. Questions about colors, ambition, family, mangoes, and love, that make me worry if I am behind syllabus or just left out of an internal joke. I remember having replied sea. To which I also remember the Delhi boy’s disappointed sigh. In my need to please people, I had retorted that: In all fairness, I had seen more of the sea than I had of the mountains. That seas are cheaper to be around and it does not necessarily make one motion-sick to get to a sea; not to mention the swimming and the salt are enjoyable.
K, it has been 8 years to the question now; I have been to the mountains many times since. And to the sea. The more I see the mountains, the more I realize just how different one is from the other. There are mountains where it snows, mountains with clouds, ones which harbor waterfalls and lakes, some you can see the Milkyway from. It is like when you had asked me to pick a parent. And I had said papa’s is an indulgent sort of love and mummy’s is easier to talk to. Like that- Meghalaya had clouds and waterfalls, Leh had snow and stars while Sikkim had rivers and wildflowers. I realized you can’t sit on clouds, but you may get lost in them. I realized snow is colder than it is pretty and in Gokarna, I realized that each forest has a different sound.
I have come to a decision. It took me some time to get here but I am sure now that I am a mountain (the kind that has forests surrounding it, rivers that flow in a haste to get somewhere, that you can jump into and hope to be carried away) person. I am a beer AND wine person. But I change every day and today I like papa more; today I’d rather visit the future not the past and will pick candy over ice cream.