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Flashback!

I was a very busy person until recently. Traveling overseas happened almost always and I was visiting places like crazy. I was in India for almost 25 years. After that, my job took me places, sometimes for longer stays than expected. But it wasn't like how it is on a holiday!

You wake up early morning in a hotel, or rent an apartment, figure out how you can get to work, start your first day at work and there's a lot to find out at work too..starting from where you'll sit, to what you'll eat, what numbers to dial, who to contact for various things, where some conference room is, whether it has the required infrastructure for a meeting, do I need something, culture differences and the best protocol to adopt..whoa! Of course, it was fun too. That's the thing about discovering. But the problem is that you end up not noticing some other things. I loved all those moments a great deal!

There would be some getaways during weekends. It would again be a lot of 'figuring out' - the 'where, how and the whats'..and by the time you've actually kicked off your shoes and settled for some quiet time, the weekend's almost over, you're back to the grind!

Now, I took a break from work!! Yippeeeeeeeeeee! Guess what happened? I napped very well, loved lazing around, was happy that I could afford myself this luxury, spent time on what I always wanted to do, dreaming, meeting new people..and of course, closing my eyes and drifting away someplace..

That's when some fun things started happening. I'd be half asleep and suddenly, like a picture post card, something would appear. It would be a beach or a sunset or some place I had been to during my travels, some spots that I remember going to, of course, but never really thought was etched in my memory to be recalled like this! Know what I mean? I did not 'do' a thing. It just came to me like a 'flash'.

These glimpses are of some beautiful places, little areas that I had admired during my trip..but were long forgotten..almost immediately after returning from my trips. But it seemed to have occupied my memory. Strangely, after 5 years or more they come back to me..and I am mesmerized again by their beauty..

It's just uncanny as to how they could remain in my memory so long, without me knowing about it!
Well, the good part is, that I have the luxury of watching these beautiful, serene places more intently from wherever I am, more intently, than I ever did when I went to visit them! Or did I actually intently watch them then too and forgot about them??

I'll never know...