I love to muse. Not that I make an effort, for I can proudly say that it comes to me naturally. I am a complete extrovert – I do not batter my eyelids to say what I feel, but then those who know me will swear that I am not a public person. I shy away from hanging out, from social invitations right since childhood – I am scared of crowds. But, then again I’m digressing from the point here – it’s about muse and my love for it. So, being a social in-comptu I have always found ways to engage myself. Developed immense amount of patience and how just by musing.

It really amazes me as to how every little thing we see around us might have a story behind it. But, then as Woodworth would have said, who has the time to stop and stare? My favorite muse is about trees as I go for the early morning round. And here today I found the perfect spot for muse. One of the garden pathways lined with fancy pebbles and beautiful trees hides a milestone. Can you believe it a sprawling campus having a road milestone still after 12 years of it being built. And it’s shaded by the most beautiful tree ever. now don’t ask me names – that’s not my forte. It’s all about my muse remember?

So the run took a flight as I loitered around wishing I carried my iPad to type this there. If my RoG (Rock of Gibraltar) heard this he would roll his eyes, but then he doesn’t understand the necessity of typing muse fresh, just off the brain palate! It’s like a serving of bacon, later the taste is there but then you know the rubbery feel. See I am already stretching my muse here!

How many cars would have the milestone seen before all it saw was flora and fauna. The tree still shades us today, but is it awed by the change of traffic? A lonesome stretch of road was suddenly converted to a bustling campus, did they feel the change. Ain’t trees the most wonderful places to wonder how many different conversations it must have overheard and emotions witnessed? Did it witness a love story of a boy waiting for his loved one under the shade? Or did it have an old man selling his small wares on a makeshift shop?

And the milestone, is it amazed by its lost importance? But still I feel that it should be proud to stand there – as a memoir of lot of our childhood memories. I remember the road trips we made from Jamshedpur to Kolkata to visit GM. Throughout the road Baba kept us engaged in who could spot a milestone and tell him the exact distance to be covered. It was a fun game and way better than what I see my nephew indulging in during road trips – Pokemon video games! How cocooned we have become courtesy flashy hoardings and GPRS, the charm of milestones is so long-lost!

The tree takes me back to my favorite Wonder Years episode – “Whose woods are these?”, where for the first time my childhood on-screen romance hero faces the dilemma of growing up and letting his favorite childhood memories go. The way they carve their initials on a single tree that was saved, today made me muse on how many stories a tree has to tell. What else does a story-teller need to muse?

I just finished a brilliant book about travel to small cities and the run today made that book come alive. It speaks of cities where trees are still the meeting points and bus joints. Where people start off their conversations on bus timings and end up sharing a meal by the roadside eatery sitting on coir strung cots and sharing life histories. Where milestones are still read to reach destination and in fact when one is spotted the cars slow down to read it correctly.

I wonder if my kids will ever know what a milestone is? Or the fun her mom had waiting for a bus with friends under the shade of a tree instead of a well cushioned bus stop. But then again maybe I’ll bring her back here to show the charm of old times and muse again (albeit then armed with my RoG instead of the iPad). Sometimes muse is better when reflected in person and by the voice which can emote it truly!

So have you indulged in any muse lately? Am all ears…

And in case you never muse, maybe you should try with this in the background ….