I did not know I would find.....

by Khushboo Vaish (India)

I didn't expect to find India

I live in Noida, an anagramed metropolitan city in the vast state of Uttar Pradesh known as the largest state of India. My city is filled with industrial factories that manufacture anything and everything for the world. One day after a frustrated day of work, I decided I need to get out of the damn building. We already have a local political mafias, I did not want to add another serial killer to the list. I went to the closest metro station for a train to somewhere. At that moment I wanted to just get out of the state. Both mental and geographical. From blue line to yellow and after a ride in the train for 1 hour with some random Spotify playlist I was standing on the station of Qutub Minar. It's a national monument, real old, real classy. So I stepped out to dwell in my national history. It was a 20 minute walk but on the way I found a real old metal gate. It had a sign board that said "Mehrauli archeological park". Did not know it existed. Haven't heard about it ever. So obviously i did the one thing that an alone woman shouldn't do in a place unknown and far away from home, I walked in. Greeted by thousands of ants, right there in the ground. Did I scream? Yes. That should have been a red flag but oh well. The next thing I saw was a garden full of flowers. Not sure if there is a corny joke there about world ending and later the next generation finds only flowers in a archeological park but yeah. I hadn't seen a garden like that ever. Flowers standing, sunlight everywhere. Maybe that's how Alice felt in a garden full of talking roses. Walked ahead. There were trees everywhere and just a small pathway in the middle. It did not look like a designed road. You know how if you walk in the same row, the grass just disappears and it becomes like a narrow, raw road? That's what this way. I almost thought that I entered a different dimension just by walking in through that gate. The pathway became more elevated and the soil started having stones in the middle. Then there came steps. Stone steps. This is the part where I did not believe anything but I kept walking because anything is better than the awful place I working in. I did know I would find paradise. I was standing on top for a old moment and all around were trees. I never knew this kind of scenery could exist but now it was front of me and my reflex action to this was crying. Those years just poured out, out of nowhere. Even I did not see them coming. My knees were weak. I kneeled. So I want you to imagine what was reality for me. Picture yourself on an island full of trees, tall sky kissing trees and that you were in the centre of the island and you see a tall, straight mountain. There are steps, you climb them to the top and there you are. The only person alive on a mountain surrounded by trees that seem like they are dancing with the wind. You sit there in awe, not believing that you have found this beautiful place and that you don't ever wanna tell anybody about it or they'll destroy it. You don't want to loose the only thing in the world that can make you happy to anybody else. That's where I was. My island in the middle of Metropolitan city.