As we walked inside the farmhouse we felt at home.. The kind of home you want when you want to escape from everyone and everything.. From routine to people to responsibilities to complications, just everything..

I was not at all surprised when Pankaj said this was Vinay’s passion. Every other weekend he was here riding fast on his bullet from Bombay and spending time here… I could truly understand Why..

So airy, open, minimal and glass all around where it should be, so you could feel you are a part of the vastness. You just could not escape from it, you were in it totally, very much in the present moment.

Andy’s indie mix dog sweetly followed us here, he was familiar with the space and with the 2 indie dogs who were a part of the farmhouse.

But truly it was not a ‘farmhouse’ and definitely not the types you were used to. It was a beautiful escape and one could see the love behind it, the need to escape from it all, to be in this wilderness and to be with the self.

One didn’t need music, people, any kind of stimulation here. This was the HIGH, right here. We flopped our bags and looked around.

Right when we walked inside was the beautiful Open kitchen, so rustic, simple in every way. And next to it was the spacey airy living room and to the other side was a nice simple double bed and the beautiful living room opened to the portico with a hammock to boot! And here is the thing, there were no doors inside , yup except for the sliding door to the portico, everything was open.

We were all just in there smiling and soaking it all in. Honestly I was very intrigued by Vinay now and really wanted to meet him and know more about this labor of love he created.

In fact he was one of the kids Pankaj used to teach football when he used to volunteer years ago and that friendship grew. Pankaj laughed and said this guy is crazy, spontaneous, has no fear and dives right in to do what he wants to do.

We all moved towards the beautiful portico and sat watching the rain. Mayank made himself comfortable in the hammock while we got out the beers with Andy’s dog next to us. These moments I tell you.. When I close my eyes and think about it, I see myself right there, at that moment, in that rain with my friends.. even now..

It was time to make some food, so I went ahead and had a gala time with Aapa and the helper girl as I made Paneer Butter Masala. Aapa was keen on knowing the recipe so I made it simple for him.

He also made  nice Aloo Curry with Rice and we made some  salad.  Pankaj and Babu Bhai were sweet enough to get all the ingredients for food and drinks. I could hear voices of Mayank, Vishwanath and Babu Bhai and it was such a pleasure being amidst all of them.

I would drink my beer and keep cooking and Pankaj would join me once a while and chat and I would join them in between.

It was such a pleasure being with my friends and later I thought if someone conventional would see us, they would think what kind of group is this? Age difference, Gender,  society everything comes to fore. We all had so much in common and that’s all that mattered.

Buzzed on beer we hogged our lunch and before we knew it, it was time for Vishwanath and Mayank to leave. Goodbyes and hugs as they walked off. Aapa would come back in the evening. Andy’s dog left with him, back to where he called home.

Babu Bhai and Pankaj slept off on the bed and I had a comfortable couch where I dozed off.

Can you listen to silence? Feel it’s pulse? It’s heartbeat? I felt it, I listened to it as I got lulled into this beautiful dreamless sleep..

We woke up to darkness. It was only 5.45 pm but everything was dark and the moon was slowly coming out. Aapa walked in and I told him Chalo let’s make Onion Pakodas/ Bhajiyas! The sweet guy that he is, he said you just eat, don’t cook anymore. His eyes sparkled all the time I tell you, so alive!

The whole space ran on Solar Light so just as we all finished eating snacks, the lights went off.  It could not be recharged because of rain from the past few days.

And it became really beautiful then… That partial moonlit night over the house, as we looked from the glass.. Oh man..

Pankaj got the Whiskey out. There was only one large peg for all of us, so Babubhai, Pankaj and myself shared it and wished we had got more 🙂

We had dinner with whatever was leftover from lunch and Aapa made my bed on the floor. I was quite close to the open glass where I could get a view of the sky as my mattress was on the floor.

Aapa was silently and thoroughly checking all the corners of the house with his torch and when we asked him, he just nodded and said Nothing 🙂

Aapa was in the next room. In a sense we were all together in this one space, it didn’t have any boundaries or limitations you know..

As I lied down on my side and looked up through the glass, I saw the sky, partial rays of the moon and silhouette of trees…

Silence teaches us so much no? If only we could ground ourselves to it, to actually listen to the silence in us too..

I didn’t want this night to end.. I wanted to just lie there and be in that moment, in that silence with the clock not ticking…