A walk by the ‘life-side’...
A
drop of sweat trickled down my forehead, into one eye, blurring the path ahead…
before I could gain back my sight, I stumbled on a stone, sprained my ankle,
lost my momentum, my pace, and my walking gust…
I lowered myself onto the side bench to soothe my ankle, realizing that the walk had to be aborted for today atleast… there was a mild chill in the air… it had probably rained early morning, leaving the grass around wet and fragrant… the sky was shedding its auburn with warm rays spiking down from behind… a bright perky morning it was, I realized then, inspite of being out in that morning for quite some time already…. I decided to soak myself in the freshness of that morning…
A screeching horn interrupted my thoughts… I looked in that direction to see a bus come to halt few meters away… a bunch of kids ran towards the bus, many more waiting behind, some waiting alone and restless, some in groups chatting happily, some stuck onto their parents, yet some others carefree and jumping around… but each one of them had short term goals of finishing that days school or to clear that terms exam and oblivious to the long winding journey ahead of them after this schooling ..... for a second I thought I said it all aloud as I heard some giggles behind me… I turned around to see a group of young girls sitting on the benches behind… they weren’t laughing at me… they were sharing some papers secretly amongst themselves, speaking in softer tone, narrating stories with restrained expressions… but what they could not hide is the eagerness in their eyes, the thrill in their voice and their adolescence flowing through their chuckle.. one of the girls while narrating her story, of maybe her new ‘crush’, looked at me apprehensively.. I returned a warm smile perhaps in assurance for her and allowing her to carry on.. and she resumed…their effervescence gave me some energy and I too resumed my walk, albeit at a slow pace…
A little ahead of me was a young couple walking… her hand heavy with the bright red bridal adornments, firmly held by him… newly wed they must be… out for a stroll, to behold the morning of their new journey together, probably also tranquilly imagining the journey ahead of them... his grip remained firm and strong, holding her close, till she loosened her hand out of it and reached out to play with a baby passing by in a pram… that baby had waved out to her, making cryptic sounds to garner her attention… on seeing this, his mother stopped the pram yet one more time… I see this mother baby duo everyday… they see off the father to work, with kisses and goodbyes and go for a walk together… the baby waves at every passerby, spreading smiles and mother gleaming with pride at her baby’s exploits, sometimes having to socialize with people who stop by and play with the baby… and at other times talking to the baby to keep him engaged.. this early parenthood is indeed an engaging activity, till the kids find their own sources of engagement… I wondered how she would be looking forward to this morning stroll, as a break from day-long baby-sitting, baby-talking, nursing and burping… My stream of thoughts continued to sway and shifted from this young mother to a group of adult mothers walking ahead of me… they walk together, in a chain type formation, blocking the entire walkway, yapping away to glory, maintaining a pace slower than a snail… there are many such chains that float around the walkway, of women and also of men, both young and old… their conversations vary depending on the weather that morning… topics in the women-chains are around the maids, kids, school, husbands, diet, weather, restaurants, in that order of frequency… and from men-chains are on politics, sports and I guess that’s it… everytime I cross them, I have to either maneuver my way from the gap left on the sides… or scare them from behind with a loud ‘excuse me’, so they give me way to move ahead of them… these chains actually act like obstacles for the serious runners, just that they choose not to jump over them and resort to my ways of overtaking them…
These runners I seriously admire… for my one round, they do two rounds… and everytime they run past me, my heart sinks to see my own lousy self… not just that, they start 30 minutes before me and after my 30 minutes, they do another 30 minutes… thankfully there are just a handful of such people so my depression is curtailed and benefits of my walking are not completely negated… I came off from one such trough and kept walking only to cross a group of men who were also out for a morning walk, but seemed to have landed from space wearing this big time machine on their wrist, which I have learned is a device to measure their pulse, the number of steps they walk, calories burnt etc.. their only agenda is to complete a set number of steps everyday, which they increase over a period, and they exchange notes next morning on their triumph… such people and their zest for fitness gives some motivation to me to keep going… in contrast to these athletes are the older people whose every step takes a lot of effort on their part, some of them needing support to walk, yet their zest to keep moving is same as the fitter lot…
Some bit of motivation also comes from the fact that I get to pet some really adorable canines during the walk… get entertained with a few walking specimen like some who play deafening music on their headphones and walk to the beats, which to me looks like a Prabhu Deva dance in slow motion… like some who make the morning all the more bright and colorful with tees, tracks, shoes in fluorescent pinks and greens, shocking pinks and yellows… like some while walking at a high-speed, suddenly stop, do an ‘about turn’ and walk in other direction, because a cat had crossed their path…
While I continued my momentum of thoughts along with my momentum of walk, forgetting the ankle sprain, I realized I had walked past one entire life cycle… from a new life in a pram to kids going to school to the teenage girls to newly weds… younger parents, middle aged men and women and older people too… I walk this path almost everyday but I had not noticed so far… today as I resumed my walk by the park-side, it was somehow different… today the warm sunshine eased my mind, illumed my path, walking me through most shades of life… almost like a walk by the life-side…
I lowered myself onto the side bench to soothe my ankle, realizing that the walk had to be aborted for today atleast… there was a mild chill in the air… it had probably rained early morning, leaving the grass around wet and fragrant… the sky was shedding its auburn with warm rays spiking down from behind… a bright perky morning it was, I realized then, inspite of being out in that morning for quite some time already…. I decided to soak myself in the freshness of that morning…
A screeching horn interrupted my thoughts… I looked in that direction to see a bus come to halt few meters away… a bunch of kids ran towards the bus, many more waiting behind, some waiting alone and restless, some in groups chatting happily, some stuck onto their parents, yet some others carefree and jumping around… but each one of them had short term goals of finishing that days school or to clear that terms exam and oblivious to the long winding journey ahead of them after this schooling ..... for a second I thought I said it all aloud as I heard some giggles behind me… I turned around to see a group of young girls sitting on the benches behind… they weren’t laughing at me… they were sharing some papers secretly amongst themselves, speaking in softer tone, narrating stories with restrained expressions… but what they could not hide is the eagerness in their eyes, the thrill in their voice and their adolescence flowing through their chuckle.. one of the girls while narrating her story, of maybe her new ‘crush’, looked at me apprehensively.. I returned a warm smile perhaps in assurance for her and allowing her to carry on.. and she resumed…their effervescence gave me some energy and I too resumed my walk, albeit at a slow pace…
A little ahead of me was a young couple walking… her hand heavy with the bright red bridal adornments, firmly held by him… newly wed they must be… out for a stroll, to behold the morning of their new journey together, probably also tranquilly imagining the journey ahead of them... his grip remained firm and strong, holding her close, till she loosened her hand out of it and reached out to play with a baby passing by in a pram… that baby had waved out to her, making cryptic sounds to garner her attention… on seeing this, his mother stopped the pram yet one more time… I see this mother baby duo everyday… they see off the father to work, with kisses and goodbyes and go for a walk together… the baby waves at every passerby, spreading smiles and mother gleaming with pride at her baby’s exploits, sometimes having to socialize with people who stop by and play with the baby… and at other times talking to the baby to keep him engaged.. this early parenthood is indeed an engaging activity, till the kids find their own sources of engagement… I wondered how she would be looking forward to this morning stroll, as a break from day-long baby-sitting, baby-talking, nursing and burping… My stream of thoughts continued to sway and shifted from this young mother to a group of adult mothers walking ahead of me… they walk together, in a chain type formation, blocking the entire walkway, yapping away to glory, maintaining a pace slower than a snail… there are many such chains that float around the walkway, of women and also of men, both young and old… their conversations vary depending on the weather that morning… topics in the women-chains are around the maids, kids, school, husbands, diet, weather, restaurants, in that order of frequency… and from men-chains are on politics, sports and I guess that’s it… everytime I cross them, I have to either maneuver my way from the gap left on the sides… or scare them from behind with a loud ‘excuse me’, so they give me way to move ahead of them… these chains actually act like obstacles for the serious runners, just that they choose not to jump over them and resort to my ways of overtaking them…
These runners I seriously admire… for my one round, they do two rounds… and everytime they run past me, my heart sinks to see my own lousy self… not just that, they start 30 minutes before me and after my 30 minutes, they do another 30 minutes… thankfully there are just a handful of such people so my depression is curtailed and benefits of my walking are not completely negated… I came off from one such trough and kept walking only to cross a group of men who were also out for a morning walk, but seemed to have landed from space wearing this big time machine on their wrist, which I have learned is a device to measure their pulse, the number of steps they walk, calories burnt etc.. their only agenda is to complete a set number of steps everyday, which they increase over a period, and they exchange notes next morning on their triumph… such people and their zest for fitness gives some motivation to me to keep going… in contrast to these athletes are the older people whose every step takes a lot of effort on their part, some of them needing support to walk, yet their zest to keep moving is same as the fitter lot…
Some bit of motivation also comes from the fact that I get to pet some really adorable canines during the walk… get entertained with a few walking specimen like some who play deafening music on their headphones and walk to the beats, which to me looks like a Prabhu Deva dance in slow motion… like some who make the morning all the more bright and colorful with tees, tracks, shoes in fluorescent pinks and greens, shocking pinks and yellows… like some while walking at a high-speed, suddenly stop, do an ‘about turn’ and walk in other direction, because a cat had crossed their path…
While I continued my momentum of thoughts along with my momentum of walk, forgetting the ankle sprain, I realized I had walked past one entire life cycle… from a new life in a pram to kids going to school to the teenage girls to newly weds… younger parents, middle aged men and women and older people too… I walk this path almost everyday but I had not noticed so far… today as I resumed my walk by the park-side, it was somehow different… today the warm sunshine eased my mind, illumed my path, walking me through most shades of life… almost like a walk by the life-side…
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