Past 2 weeks III (The calling)

This story is about the saturday that went past. But this time, before I start telling about why, what and how of this saturday, here's an insight into why these 2 weeks. Well, these 2 weeks reminded me of the carefree, crazy, on the move kind of person that I always thought I was. This somehow got suppressed as soon as I came to bangalore. Now, I can give you umpteen number of reasons, from my odd hours in office to not knowing many people here, living alone to not able to find people like me around... but I guess the biggest problem was always me. I never took any initiative in this regard. But the last 2 weeks (11th to 26th) reminded me so much of all that I was. Started with a trek to a journey to gurgaon and dehradun and this weekend, well this was another wonderful and satisfying experience.

This saturday started with plans to meet a friend, which changed from her coming to my place for dinner to we going out on a long drive to, actually, her getting stuck somewhere and not able to make it. Called 2 more people, one was in hyderabad and other had made plans. Meanwhile, I was trying to figure out, what went wrong and how? Breaking my head over the casualties of planning something in advance (Somehow this has never worked for me, whenever I have made plans they have just gone for a toss). Sitting in my room, while I was whining about my life infront of some people in the virtual world, it struck me. A kind of epiphany. A calling that I was trying to ignore till now. The purpose of my life. The push and pull of the forces, beyond comprehension of the us mere mortals.

And it was then, that I decided... I should take an evening walk.

Now there was nothing special about this walk, if not the fact that it was a loooooooooooongggggg walk. I mean, that is, if you consider 13 kms in a day, long (from here on, this would be known as my city trek, or in short CT... sounds more hep and happening). So, my CT started as a very casual stroll on the road, going towards the outer ring road. Now people who have visited my place, know that even touching outer ring road from my place is quite a distance and usually, people take evening strolls of this length. I would have returned after reaching there, or rather I should have, but something inside told me to just keep going. The traffic, the pollution of the 7 pm road, the noise somehow started seeming very inviting. And I walked. It was very late when suddenly i realised that I had already covered quite a distance (around 5.5 - 6 kms, yeah yeah... I get lost in my thoughts). So I decided, why not have some ghar ka khana at my aunt's place who lives another km or so from there. I call her, make arrangements and have a nice fulfilling dinner (more importantly, ghar ka khana... or rather ghar ka khana, cooked by someone else).

Spending about an hour at her place, now I had to get back. If I was in any sane mind that time, I would have simply taken an auto rickshaw back. But alas!!! I had another epiphany. Another calling. Another push and pull from the forces. And I decided to continue my CT. Walking back was even more fun. The roads were getting empty (empty by indian standards), and a few cars which were visible seemed to be in big hurry to reach somewhere. My only companions were the trucks laden with steel rods, building stones and cement bags. But they too were too fast for me. And as it happens to most of the people when they are alone walking at 10:30pm at night on a dark road with puddles formed by a recent rain shower, when eyes of the dogs shine bright blue and yellow, and their cries resonate in the sky, when almost every sane person is safe inside there comfortable homes, and every one else who is outside looks like someone ready to pounce on you and mug you, I started to sing and dance. Ok dance wasn't really a dance... just a few gesture of hands. But sing, i did. Loud. Old beautiful songs of Mukesh and Kishore and Rafi. In my coarse and not so beautiful voice.

And then I reached home. nearly 13 kms of total walk with dinner in between. I was tired, satisfied, satiated, and happy. :)