by Amina Aslam
ruins there.
You look at them superficially there’s nothing but plundered buildings, when you look at it in depth, there’s a lot of history there… to see and to feel!!!!
What struck me is emperor’s changed, empires changed, policies changed as did the life styles and the styles of construction but “Ness ” has continued to flow, never stopped.
The only constant among various variations around her. Carrying in her heart all the memories, all the secrets, all the joys, all the cries of pleasure and pain that she was witnessed to; a mute witness.
Her flow same as it was in 6th century. A constant in the middle of all variables around her.
As I write this I can still feel that light wind, small ripples, the soft sand along her banks. They were whispering in my ears, melancholically,,, “”going away my dearest?? Wont you stay a while longer?? Wont you turn back the pages of history?? Don’t you want to know about my experiences?? Aahh!! I know you do!! So please stay back dearest???” Pestering me to be with her, to listen to her.
Its such a pity man in today’s world is so busy, that he hardly has time to listen to his own voice, don’t even talk about hearing to voices of rivers…
I was lost in my own thoughts, when a light drizzle woke me up to reality. The light drizzle soon became rain… rain without thunder. We hurried home…
Once we reached back, got fresh and poured ourselves steaming hot tea, but before I could put the teacups to my lips rain became hailstorm, hail stones pouring. I normally like hail stones…but not today..Not after watching the plundered mansions, not after listening to the melancholy of ness, not after leaving her behind in spite of her protests, not after witnessing the ruins of once splendid kingdoms, not after what ness shared with me…her heavy burdensome secrets. I felt a strange sort of grief the wind blew in my ears. I couldn’t see much difference between the lives of us humans and of those falling fast melting hailstones.
I woke up early the next morning and went out for walking as I had decided the previous day.
The atmosphere today was nothing like yesterday’s, there were birds chirping, gentle people around warmly wishing each other hello’s, good morning’s filling the air with early morning buzz.
We visited Eilean Donan Castle later that day. This also stands on the banks of river ness like Urquhart. The blue sky and the mountains cast reflection on the river. One almost gets a feeling as blue sky was swimming carelessly in ness.
We saw loch ness views, went on boat trips. The 25 mile long ness was jumping with excitement today…welcoming me, talking to me, boasting to me this place belonged to her. She owned the steeps of mountains and soft grass, which grew on it.
She owned everything along her 25 miles long banks and today; she was proudly showing it off to me, like a little kid showing off his presents.
This is not a river she is a maiden lost in her own world, perennially long and beautiful, indifferent to the world around her she is not lifeless but full of life and talks to people who standby and listen to her.
We were next scheduled to visit Ben Nevis, don’t let the name mislead you, it sounds like the name of an innocent little primary school kid…It is far from it. … The highest peak in Britain.
Ben Nevis is situated in fort William. So innocent it certainly is, but a little primary school kid??? It is definitely not…
I could see many tourists here; some of them with the help of guides were busy trekking. There were cable cars here.
There is the single Jacobite steam engine train; I am told we get precious stones along the banks of rivers here. The bursting, bustling river, little wooden stone bridges, the scent of wild flowers are all making me feel intoxicated.
The tall peaks and the pine trees competing, attempting to outgrow each other, they are all taking a second off to welcome us as we move along.
The view here is like what we see only on picture postcards or wall hangings with a motivating message printed on them or in the calendars in India.
The views are like a painter painting this with brilliant imagination and stunning colours. I rub my eyes is this a dream or is it for real???
Today we were going to biggest island in Scotland Isle of Skye. Our journey commenced at 7 in the morning. I would always feel we are four of us, but I realised how wrong I was, how could I not recognise our little tom tom. Sitting pretty next to the drivers seat our talkative little fellow. Our tiny little satellite navigator, I am told the whole map of United Kingdom is fed into it. all we need to do is enter the postcode and our little fella will take the mantle on himself to ensure we reach our destination.
First part of our trip is the undersea glass bottom boat trip. What happens in this, do we get to see the seabed? Inside the sea, the soil on which the seawater rests.
My husband and me have a habit of watching the discovery channel back home. I was watching discovery channel today too but not on a television screen, I was watching it all live in person.
It is amazing how far humans have come. The prophet Noah (P.B.U.H) was first to travel on sea by his first handmade ship, an achievement in its time and now man can dive right through the sea, deep into the sea like the prophet Moses (P.B.U.H) and the children of Israel.
The inside of sea is like a bon of jewels, jewels scattered around. The sand inside the sea is pure white with huge number of fish swimming. All the fish glittered like gold when the light from sun fell on then.
Different kind of grasses, leaves, aquatic plants,,,,, the guide tells me the Japanese use them in their salads .he goes on to add it is also used in making cosmetics, lipsticks etc. May be that is why they have wrinkle free, smooth flawless skin, I silently thought to my self.
Boat journey then came to an end. The guide was very nice. The captain exhibited the best Scottish hospitality by personally coming down to us and seeing us off, with a big smile on his face.
My verdict?? Full marks to the guide, captain and Scottish hospitality.
We had so far spent the day under sea next we travel over the sea via Skye bridge to reach the very famous “Isle of Skye” and visited its capital Portree a very beautiful place.
I can hardly spot anyone here. Very scarcely populated with people, very densely populated with tall, strong silent cliffs though!!
We visited the kilt rock; it’s a huge cliff and stands over an enormous deep blue sea.
Next we saw the old man of storr, it’s a tall sea rock in the middle of sea 60 meter in height.
There is also a huge harbour on this Island.
The people still live here in Gallic tradition and give a lot of importance to their ancestral culture. We saw the homes and belongings of the ancient islanders in a museum.
People chasing peace and quite in busy cities can take my advice and live their entire lives here. The sky is enormous and clean over our heads as is the earth beneath our feet, people here know nothing about noise or air pollution.
Houses enveloped in flowers as are the roads, you would be lucky to find more than a couple of people on the long peaceful silent roads.
It is such a place that a person with writing instincts will discover Charles dickens in him and with poetic inclinations will find a William Wordsworth hidden inside him and a person with painting instincts will become Michael Angelo. In such serenity did we finish sighting the complete island.
Resumed our return journey at 6.00 p.m. Ocean all around us, you see yourself surrounded all over by water. Only colour we knew was blue, I almost got a feeling we were heading only towards the awaiting sea every minute, there is no end to the road the only end is deep blue water ahead. And at the nth moment road curves around giving me more hope and then I feel we are headed right into the cliffs and the suddenly there is another curve and more hope and then I felt we are headed into the river and water streams next, trempling in fear I realised more and more curves rescued us each time I lost hope. I almost felt there are no people here only us, our car and the awaiting sea, creepy at times.
The light would not fade even as late as 21:00 in the night and the street lights lit and gave us the extra courage most needed now in the absence of people. Son-in-law deserves an award for the concentration he showed. Unwavering focus, very much appreciative. We were applauding as we reached the city limits of Inverness and had our dinner at Mc Donald’s. Quite literally a happy meal.
Today’s day was dull, very cloudy, full of mist, low in visibility but my daughter was very happy.
Reason; she ‘s going to go fishing today. Fishing has interested her for a very long time and today she is getting the opportunity to do it and also because we were going to visit the snow capped mountains.
We first visited Cairngorms National Park situated in Aviemore; it has many attractions for kids and grown-ups alike.
The thing I enjoyed the best here was watching the little kids on their tiny sledges over the white snow. They looked like the little stuffed dolls on the while snow.
My daughter and her hubby were looking forward for skiing but due to heavy snowfall the previous night they weren’t allowing today. They looked quite disappointed but not for long. We decided to climb the mountain by foot, climbed a hundred feet was a lot of fun but it can get very slippery mind you. Everywhere we looked we only see huge expanse of sharp white snow. And the snow was very bright, to the extent that it hurts your eyes. It shone like it were formed of heaps and heaps of
