Snow

When talking to a friend once, I was amazed to know that he actually remembered the first time he saw the sea. I have relatives in Mumbai and I was born there, so the image of the sea has always been in my head. I don't remember the first time I saw the sea, or the mountains. My friend lived in the mountains, and he came to the beach the first time when he was 19-20 years old. I guess when you have waited that long (not that he was waiting for it!), the memory stays with you.

Based on this "fable", I had conjured up images of seeing snow the first time. I imagined myself getting off the train or the bus in the Swiss Alps, seeing a foot of snow, not knowing what to do but just staring at the whole scene and taking it in. When I saw the snow-capped mountains in the distance from my house, this "image" intensified. But funnily enough that is not how it happened. I was on my way to a party in Nice and while in the bus, we saw what we thought was rain. Now, Nice does not get snowfall generally and there was nothing to suggest that it would snow. Well, the forecast said it might snow in Sophia Antipolis, which is higher up and farther from the sea.

As the bus slowed down, we realised that the "water drops" hitting the windows were tiny white were tiny white snowflakes. I was searching for the "OMG the first snowfall!" feeling in me, but I was mostly wondering why the heck it is snowing. We got out at the bus stop, and it slowly dawned on me. It was snowing! I think the movies and books hype up the situation too much. It was a cool feeling, I admit. But my jaw did not drop.

Later on in the night, we looked through the window of the apartment and saw the snowfall. It had gotten heavier, so to say. Compared to most other places, the quantity was still miserly but it does look beautiful. We looked out of the window and could see the car tops covered with snow. The temperature wasn't low enough, so snow on the ground melted away. When we left the place for home, the cars still had snow over them. We made a couple of snowballs and threw them. We were too cold to keep playing, so the game did not last much. I don't know if I will remember this memory like my friend does, but it was a bit special. It was definitely something I did not expect, but thats generally how things go...