A weekend in Shahdol

There are some times in life that you find yourself in a moment stuck in time. In that moment, it doesn’t matter how successful you have become, or how many accolades you have gained. It doesn’t matter how fast life seems to pass you by. Because in that time warp, all that matters is the moment itself.


Imagine walking along a river bed. The water flowing besides you, sometimes calm, sometimes fast. As you hop along the rocks on the riverbed, the water seems to want to join in and cascades down a waterfall in pursuit.

Now imagine walking up a gentle slope to a temple atop a hillock. You walk behind the temple and sit down on the parapet below a huge Peepul tree. As the wind blows through you hair, you watch the lands stretch out towards you. Acres and acres of green farmland. And time stands still.

This is the weekend I had. Our visit to Shahdol was primarily to meet The Husband’s grand parents and spend time with them. But little did I know that this gem of a town would charm me such. This post is not a travelogue, that will come later in a more commercial forum. This post is about the fact that a 2 day trip to a serene environment like this can help calm your soul like nothing else can.

As we walked along the narrow streets of Shahdol, it did not matter what deadlines we had to meet and where we had to reach in life. What mattered was the moment. The ‘now’. The little things that we so often forget. And things that we rarely notice. Like a crow in the courtyard asking for its daily meal. Like the fact that water from a well still tastes much sweeter than any Evian you may buy. Like the fact that a grandfather wants nothing more than to have someone to share his thoughts with. And that a grandmother gets no greater pleasure than to have her family sit around her and devour the delicious food she so lovingly prepared.

Because, we so often forget to stop and smell the flowers. I know…because I smelt them in Shahdol.