Out and About for a Breath of Fresh Air

The sun was shining nice and bright and the chirping of birds added to the morning freshness. I had been getting up relatively late for almost a month and my morning walk schedule had gone for a toss. Probably late nights spent with my laptop and books were to blame.

Nevertheless, I decided to go for a stroll around the locality park to get some fresh air and Vitamin D, which is quite in dearth in most of our bodies these days, thanks to lack of exposure to sunlight, owing to the perfectly air-conditioned days we spend within the confines of our homes or workplaces.

As if I am unaware that a day’s sunlight and fresh air won’t make much of a difference to my languid self, it was a great day to start all over again. The crispness of the sunrays enticed me to walk out of my home doors and experience the morning freshness imbued in the air all around.

It was 7:15 in the morning. I put on my T-Shirt and track pants, got into my walking shoes, switched on the ipod and headed straight to the park.

There is no better feeling in the world to listen to your favourite tracks while taking a leisure walk. I purposely chose the ‘Pretty Woman’ title track to pep my lazy self a bit and pave my way through the streets that led to the park.

The streets around the locality were bustling with car cleaners, parents ushering their school kids towards the bus stands, school teachers loaded with bags containing piles of notebooks briskly walking to catch the next Metro and early office commuters lazily starting their car engines to begin the ordeal for yet another day.

I have experienced such mornings myself a few years back and can clearly distinguish between the two lives, one forcing me to run the rat race for goals best known to God, and my life now, where an easy early morning schedule allows you to sit and think, what new I could do for my life, for my home. Well, that is entirely my personal take towards life, and everyone has different aims and ways of leading what we call a ‘good life’.

Finally, I enter the park and am straight away greeted by Kharbanda aunty, a regular morning walker (good for her) and also an overly inquisitive neighbour always eager to know what’s happening in whose life (not so good for me). She is not the only one because the moment you enter the park, be ready to apply brakes to your smooth saunter after every 100 steps. This continues for almost a couple of rounds of the park until you have greeted almost every known uncle and aunty with a ‘Namaste’/’Hello’ and answered the questions, like ‘how are you?’, ‘how is mom?’, ‘what are you doing these days?’, from the more known uncles and aunties. This is one drawback of having overly sweet neighbours. I loathe myself for not being present for the morning walks all this month. At least the questionnaires in the form of pleasantries could have easily been restricted to a ‘Namaste‘.

Phewww! I guess I just completed my two rounds of exchanging pleasantries and get back to the purpose I was here for, a brisk walk to feel fresh and invigorated.

The locality park is divided into two halves. One is a made into a playing field for the kids with almost no grass and trees only at the periphery, while the other is lush green with benches laid for people to sit and relax, and breathe in fresh air and bathe in the morning sun.

There are two groups of elderly men and women chit chatting their ways through politics, pension plans, soaring electricity bills, etc. and cooking, maid woes, the new drama series on television, etc., respectively. This I keep overhearing every time I cross these groups amidst listening to the melodious soundtrack playing in my ears and the constant ramblings of the other people walking and talking their ways through the walking trail.

I must confess that I sometimes enjoy eavesdropping on these conversations, not because I find them funny for my age, but also because I can share these with my mom once I get back home. We have a good time talking about all this especially during our evening tea time. 😉

I thought I had had enough of morning freshness and it had been almost 45 minutes since I came here. That’s the effect beautiful mornings and melodious music have, you just don’t realise the amount of time that went by.

I was about to make my way out of the park when I saw a group of peacocks emerge from the boundaries of the park, gracefully crossing the walking trail to enter the greener patches. Yes this is absolutely true. The place where I live in initially had big orchards before the dwellings were erected. Some of these orchards are still maintained, where beautiful birds, even some migratory ones, perch and chirp time and again, making the surroundings feel surreal, especially during morning and evening hours.

I so wish I had my camera ready to capture the beauty of the colourful peacocks through my lens. May be next time I will go more prepared. For now, I had to rush back home to start with my daily chores, which may feel a bit less mundane after a fresh morning walk.

Hope you too have a good day!

🙂