Remember the metal staircase in the backyard? Used to be at the further end, made use of only by Vishnu-Bahadur's family while they lived here. It was not by any real plan, but because the neighbor wanted the foundation on that side to go deeper and block water from seeping into their basement after a heavy rain -- that, that side underwent some serious reconstruction. Part of which was to move the metal staircase where it is now, outside and right of the window of my room. I liked the idea, once I could imagine it. The black staircase adding something to the garden.
You will also remember, the view from this side, the temple to the right beyond the wall and the nursery to the left, some aging trees also visible. It was the same neighbor again who had the large land behind cleared. People walk the road, going left to the nursery, mostly in the mornings, but also others, the house-working ones, in the evenings, cutting through to their homes in the slum-like habitation which lines the road beyond the nursery, thankfully a little ways beyond it.
In the mornings I can hear the children coming to attend the school next to the temple, about the time when I am done with my own morning routine, bath and toilet, meditation and yoga, and I come to feel the morning freshness, and the sun as it rises from the left. Cup of coffee in hand, I walk up these garden stairs, sitting on the roof's edge my feet on the top most step.
The sunlight is beginning to reach the roof as it streams through the gaps in the branches of the trees. People walking out of the nursery, some who have walked from home, others towards their cars parked there, all have an air, a readiness to meet the day, and what it will bring. Children too seem to be looking forward to their school, probably the company of friends they will meet.
Then I notice this squirrel. I had noticed him as it first was skittering around, making its way up the tree. It's a favorite among the squirrels, this tree, a little too slender for the cat which is sometimes around to follow them up, and it leads all the way to the roof. As I sat there looking at the scene beyond our backyard wall, this squirrel too came and perched itself on a piece of brick lying there. The sunlight had just reached us, and I felt there must be so little difference in what we must both feel now. Sometimes it would twitch its tail, but otherwise as I sat there for more than fifteen minutes, so did the squirrel, basking in the morning sun, on this not so chilly winter morning.
about the time when I am done with my own morning routine, bath and toilet, meditation and yoga, and I come to feel the morning freshness, -->that is missing between the time you are not saying which time --> about that the time I was doing my morning routine, bath, meditation, yoga and I come to feel the morning freshness,
