Describe a place or environment where you are perfectly content. What do you do and experience there and why is it meaningful to you? (250-650)
My friends have a running joke, that whenever I tell them I am going somewhere, they immediately say it has to be Anuppur. It is a small town in the state of Madhya Pradesh, where my aunt lives. She has a beautiful home with a spacious terrace, a huge and stunning garden, insanely large rooms with high ceilings, and a balcony surrounding the entire house on the first floor. My aunt has a knack for style, so she has decorated her house with queer knick-knacks and amazing paintings. All rooms are painted in such a way that one wall has a statement wallpaper, while the other walls have neutral colors. My favorite part is that the house has huge windows that let the sunshine in. You feel like you are inside and outside at the same time. For as long as I can remember, I have spent part of my summer and winter vacations there, and it is safe to say that those times are the best time of the year, because I am perfectly content there.
Whenever I think of my aunt's place, I think of all the hours my cousins and I have spend late into the night talking about anything and everything, from crushes, celebrity gossip, favorite songs and movies, to family drama, our anxieties and fears, and even death. I remember darting from one room to another while playing hide and seek, eating barbecued chicken and dancing around the bonfire, playing catch-catch, cricket and kabaddi on the terrace and rolling around the garden and playing with Charger (my aunt's dog). Most of all, I remember all the movie marathons we always watch, when all of us somehow snuggle into one large blanket, and almost always end up ignoring half the movie because we have so much fun with each other. Besides, Anuppur in itself is a beautiful place, with no malls and shopping complexes (not even a decent cinema hall!), but a large forest cover and many lakes, which make for interesting picnic spots.
When I am at my aunt's place, I forget everything else. All the peer drama, the school pressure and other fears and anxieties roll themselves into one large ball of nonbeing, and my mind kicks it out of the zone effectively. There's an infectious energy in the house, and every corner of it holds some childhood memory that puts a smile on my face. I feel like I am on a holiday from life, and the world is at a pause, while my life gets to play, and play how. Perhaps the reason I am so happy and content there is because normally, I live with my mother only. My father comes home on weekends as he works in another city, while my brother is married and lives in another city. It is amazing in a way, because I believe my mother and I have the best relationship it is possible to have, and she is my absolute best friend. But, I will be lying if I say it doesn't get lonely and quiet at times. I crave the zingy and crazy atmosphere where lots of people are laughing and enjoying, and that's exactly what I get at my aunt's place. The atmosphere is always charged, and there's never a dull moment. There's no time to dwell on or think about mistakes. All the time is spent playing, laughing, talking and just enjoying. I always get this really warm feeling in my tummy when we're all together, because I feel so cherished and loved that I possibly couldn't want anything else. There's not a doubt in my mind that if I could spend my entire life there, I definitely would.
My friends have a running joke, that whenever I tell them I am going somewhere, they immediately say it has to be Anuppur. It is a small town in the state of Madhya Pradesh, where my aunt lives. She has a beautiful home with a spacious terrace, a huge and stunning garden, insanely large rooms with high ceilings, and a balcony surrounding the entire house on the first floor. My aunt has a knack for style, so she has decorated her house with queer knick-knacks and amazing paintings. All rooms are painted in such a way that one wall has a statement wallpaper, while the other walls have neutral colors. My favorite part is that the house has huge windows that let the sunshine in. You feel like you are inside and outside at the same time. For as long as I can remember, I have spent part of my summer and winter vacations there, and it is safe to say that those times are the best time of the year, because I am perfectly content there.
Whenever I think of my aunt's place, I think of all the hours my cousins and I have spend late into the night talking about anything and everything, from crushes, celebrity gossip, favorite songs and movies, to family drama, our anxieties and fears, and even death. I remember darting from one room to another while playing hide and seek, eating barbecued chicken and dancing around the bonfire, playing catch-catch, cricket and kabaddi on the terrace and rolling around the garden and playing with Charger (my aunt's dog). Most of all, I remember all the movie marathons we always watch, when all of us somehow snuggle into one large blanket, and almost always end up ignoring half the movie because we have so much fun with each other. Besides, Anuppur in itself is a beautiful place, with no malls and shopping complexes (not even a decent cinema hall!), but a large forest cover and many lakes, which make for interesting picnic spots.
When I am at my aunt's place, I forget everything else. All the peer drama, the school pressure and other fears and anxieties roll themselves into one large ball of nonbeing, and my mind kicks it out of the zone effectively. There's an infectious energy in the house, and every corner of it holds some childhood memory that puts a smile on my face. I feel like I am on a holiday from life, and the world is at a pause, while my life gets to play, and play how. Perhaps the reason I am so happy and content there is because normally, I live with my mother only. My father comes home on weekends as he works in another city, while my brother is married and lives in another city. It is amazing in a way, because I believe my mother and I have the best relationship it is possible to have, and she is my absolute best friend. But, I will be lying if I say it doesn't get lonely and quiet at times. I crave the zingy and crazy atmosphere where lots of people are laughing and enjoying, and that's exactly what I get at my aunt's place. The atmosphere is always charged, and there's never a dull moment. There's no time to dwell on or think about mistakes. All the time is spent playing, laughing, talking and just enjoying. I always get this really warm feeling in my tummy when we're all together, because I feel so cherished and loved that I possibly couldn't want anything else. There's not a doubt in my mind that if I could spend my entire life there, I definitely would.
