If I could squeeze my human self into a bouncy molecule transcending time and space

I would embark onto a trip to the ends of the earth.

We dreamt so many times with Alex of travelling to India

so Mumbai would be a good place to start.

Mumbai is huge and its population vast, over 18 million souls, but I would fit perfectly in travelling as a speck of dust.

I would not want to do sightseeing, in the touristy sense of the word, although I am sure the views would be spectacular…

A speck of dust has other dreams…

I would love, instead of hastily overloading my senses with almost palpable but somewhat artificial beauty, to just be…

I would love to be the dirt that rests for a while on, old, well-travelled shoes. Listen to their stories;  bask in the richness of experience they carry of places visited…

I would love to be the tear that stains imperceptibly the cheek of the old, sweet lady who guards the even older temple. The emotional tear which in its falling brings her relief. The tear which collects and flows; down to its infinitesimal components, revealing decades of untold pain and longing – and now, wisdom and peace.

I would gladly choose to be the drop of murky water which is used by the young girl to imperfectly recreate her faultless beauty. I do not know her but I can feel, from touching her soul for a fraction of a second that she is inherently beautiful, the way only children and animals can be. She makes a completely imperfect world and universe, perfect, by simply being in it.

I would return home, after such a wonderful trip of senses, refreshed and wealthy in the knowledge that the world is immense in its rich flavours and vast experiences.

Enriched beyond belief by the simple acknowledgement that I had been allowed a special and unique glimpse of it, that I had been able to see it from yet another angle and that those glimpses changed me deep down, to a molecular level.

I have my friend, Mark Allen, an incredibly talented photographer from Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland, to thank for the inspiration that went into creating this post and more importantly, for the beautiful pictures he allowed me to use for the purpose of this post. Thank you so much for sharing your Indian trip with us this year, those vibrant pictures made my imagination run wild and my fingers ache with the desire to integrate them into a piece of writing of my own!

This blog post is an entry into the Foodies100/GLORIOUS! soup #GloriousAdventures blogger challenge and having as inspiration their Mumbai Lentil and Chickpea Soup. If this post wins the challenge, our little family of three (plus Georgie, which we carry in our hearts forever and everywhere) will head out to Mumbai to experience all these amazing sights and emotions first hand.