Afloat Upon The Sound Of Silence

A Dreamy Journey Through Kerala’s Silent Valley

- Piya Bose

Sitting in my apartment in Mumbai with ear plugs on to block out the incessant sound of drilling from the construction site outside my window, I desperately craved silence. Each time the noise started, I felt bits of my being disintegrating. I developed a secret fantasy of finding a place far away in the midst of nature where the only sound I would hear was the sound of silence...!

DREAMLAND

In my sleep-deprived state, adjusting my eyes to golden sunlight streaming in through emerald green leaves, I realised that I was inside the dream I was just dreaming. The woods had taken on a life of their own and I felt an inexplicable connection with its life force. As we drove deeper into the woods, I drifted in and out of a gentle, hypnotic sleep. In my waking moments, my mind would register the rich diversity of trees and plants around me, the shimmering white flow of waterfalls and the sudden rustling in a tree when a lion-tailed macaque climbed up its flaking branches.

AN ENCHANTED FOREST