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When there is nothing and no one else, there is Silence. The one companion who is but a thought away. In the midst of every strife, in all of one's traumas or the most peaceful or joyful times, the moment I cherish most is when I am able to step away from it all, with just silence besides and inside of me and feel the intensity right down to my soul. If  I were to assign imagery to silence, to give it a form, I would think of it as a cloud. A warm, billowing, soothing , downy cloud that envelops and gathers one in its midst. It cushions the heart and heals from all hurt and malice, it protects, providing an armour against deception and betrayal and it moistens the calcification in one's soul, built by the vagaries of human temperaments and transactions. 

In the evergrowing aural tempo of the world, I have found it increasingly difficult to commune with Silence. The ethereal silence of each breaking dawn which is like a remnant of divinity is fragmented by the ringing of bells in temples, the chanting of mantras, the singing of bhajans etc. ; all supposed means of salvation or the source of finding the fount of eternal peace! A Silent person per se is looked at askance; there is either an aura of mystery, aloofness or lack of intelligence attached. A common question when someone is silent - "Is everything OK?" . It is beyond my comprehension how one can not be 'Okay' in wilful silence. If silence is to be a by-product of solitude, I would willingly choose to isolate myself from the trappings of a world so enchanted by oral acoustics and retreat to a place where there is  a minimised need for empty words.

However, since there are acts to perform, duties to fulfil and roles to confirm to, this option is not easily available. So I have built an alternate world inside of me, a kind of parallel reality and while the functional part of me dwells in the so called 'real' world, the real 'ME' lives in that world of my creation. And it is here that I can retreat to, at any time, any place, from any situation. I can view, from the vantage point of the everlasting Silence that exists there, all that happens with me in the real world. I have learnt to step outside of myself  and be an observer to my own life from my alternate reality, accompanied by faithful Silence to calm and engulf me with its reassuring presence. All of the cosmic manifestations then seem to be in unison with a greater whole and Silence is the door that shall lead me through, to the other side...