Moments to cherish — Part 1 of some
I landed in Los Angeles on August 8, 2016 at 5pm. It was my second trip to America, the first one having been just a couple of weeks long in February 2015. Los Angeles seemed balmy and the leaves fluttering in the wind on my way to the apartment reminded me of back home. So much was going to be different, yet so much of it was going to be the same.
This is not a post about everything that followed since my arrival to America. This is about the few moments that I will forever cherish, you know like the moments when one is grateful for their existence on a visceral level. The first such moment arrived soon after my arrival.
It was an evening in October, and one of those many occasions where as a broke university student, you chance upon a free food event. I was welcomed by the hosts — Maddy and her husband, Trevor. In time, I realized they were the kindest people I have ever met. That evening, as I was waiting in the queue to get the food, I glanced behind me and heard someone greet me. It was a guy in spectacles, of medium build and he was looking intently at me. I greeted him back and we made small talk for a while. We then started discussing movies and it turned out that he was a much more knowledgeable about world cinema than I was. I was so excited that I stayed talking to him throughout the event and even accompanied him outside after the event was over. I still remember that night like it happened just yesterday: Hendrik and I stayed talking for 1 hour and 15 minutes on Figueroa Street right outside USC. We talked about science, religion, poetry and so much else. Later that night, I texted him asking for his social media handles, so that we could stay connected. He promptly replied, and we met quite a few times after that. We have continued to stay in touch. I have also kept in touch with Maddy and Trevor, and talking to them feels like the world is a little less unknown to me.
In August 2018, I watched Rodriguez perform live in San Francisco. Besides his intelligent music, he was also quite eloquent about the politics of America. I had come across his music years ago when I had watched the documentary “Searching for Sugar Man”. Rodriguez had come with a couple of albums back in the 70s and then disappeared from the music scene. His music was made popular again during the final Apartheid years in South Africa. Here are the lyrics from one of his songs named “Cause”; it’s difficult not to marvel at not only the writing but also his rendition of it:
“So overdued I went to the company store
And the clerk there said that they had just been invaded
So I set sail in a teardrop and escaped beneath the doorsill
’Cause the smell of her perfume echoes in my head still
’Cause I see my people trying to drown the sun
In weekends of whiskey sours
’Cause how many times can you wake up in this comic book
And plant flowers?”
While I was watching him perform at The Warfield, I realized how it had always been a dream of mine to be able to watch him perform, and that it was coming true right in that moment. Few things have ever felt better. Rodriguez was frank about what he said, and yet so humble. His music had helped me during a dark period in my life, and here was the source of the light that had saved me back then, would continue to save me forever.
In October 2018, I went to LA to see Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds perform at The Forum. It was 2015, and one of the usual days at work when I had worked overtime and come back home feeling miserable late in the night. I opened up YouTube and started playing a Courtney Barnett song. Right after that song, “To be by your side” by Nick Cave started playing. It was the first time I was listening to him. It felt like he was appealing to something deep within me. It felt like he was trying to caress something broken inside me, as if telling me that the brokenness was okay as it was, and that it would always be okay even if it always remained broken. Over the next few days, I devoured his discography. Days were spent being miserable, nights were spent purging myself of all the misery listening to his music. Fast forward to 2018, I was about to see the maestro live in LA. It seemed unreal. I was probably the only one who wasn’t dressed up as a goth at the venue, but it was okay. I enjoyed quite a bit that evening. Cigarettes after Sex performing as the opening act was the icing on the cake! I saw Nick Cave again the following year in Seattle as a part of his “Conversations” tour. It is something for which I will forever be grateful.
In November 2019, I visited Yosemite National Park for the first time. It was then that I realized what a magic being in nature is. Whether it be the valley or the high country, Yosemite felt like a place where you could get lost forever, and in the process find yourself. There are quite a few touristy spots inside Yosemite, but there are a whole lot more spots where you can be silent with just the sounds of the nature around you. In those moments, one comes a little closer to oneself, and thinks their life over, their achievements, their failings and how it couldn’t have been any different. The nature is your companion, your savior and you would welcome anything that happened in that instant. You become a little more accepting of who you are. Tenaya Lake, Tuolumne Meadows, El Capitan, Half Dome, Bridalveil Falls — we saw it all. At night, we sat right next to the river and listened to just the sounds of the water splashing, flowing for a long time. At one point, I remember someone had come close to where we were sitting and asked if we knew what the time was. We said we didn’t know, and somewhere deep within us, we knew that it didn’t really matter in that moment. Time had stopped, if only briefly. Under a starry sky, we didn’t think of much except the splashing and the flowing.
These are a few times that I will forever cherish. Each of these reminded me in some way of who I am, and what I love doing the most. Being with other people to which it meant the same told me it was okay, important even to not be shown down for the things that you love. And that meant something, something that’s too profound to be expressed in words. I hope you find such moments in your life as well. Life is simple, but the beauty that it sometimes offers is breathtaking, and just for those few ‘sometimes’, I am willing to do this once more.
